UPDATE: The Black Arts Movement District along the 14th Street corridor

August 7, 2015, 12:37 am

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Marvin,

We will gladly support your efforts and invite you to also join the group that is convening to assist. Casey has done a lot of leg work on the formation and naming of the District to prepare the appropriate legislation. We were unable to get the research completed last year and the first 6 months as president have been extremely demanding.

I am delighted to learn that you've engaged a group of stakeholders. My efforts to name the 14th Street corridor is actually a bit broader than just Black Arts Movement. As you may recall, before learning of your interest, we had begun the process of naming this corridor the Black Business Arts & Cultural District. Since that's not a final determination it would be good to learn how we can align these efforts, not be duplicative or obstructive.

I'm on recess for the month of August. Our next meeting is scheduled for September with the goal of introducing legislation before November. Casey Farmer is my Legislative Director and is key in advancing this proposal forward.

We'll be in touch.

Best, Lynette

Sent by Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney from my iPad

Left to Right: Dr. Leslie Stradford, Marvin X, grandson Jahamiel, Laney College President Elnora T. Webb, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf holding Marvin's granddaughter Naima Joy, Dr. Nathan Hare, Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney, Rt. Col. Conway Jones, Jr., at the Laney College celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, Feb. 7, 2015. photo Ken Johnson

On Aug 5, 2015, at 5:24 PM, Marvin X Jackmon <jmarvinx@yahoo.com> wrote:

Mrs. Lynette McElhaney,
President, Oakland City Council

8/5/15
Dear Lynette McElhaney,

I write you because I am confused on where you stand as per the Black Arts Movement District you announced you would proclaim late last year. You told me then to let you get past the holidays. Recently, your assistant, Brigitte Cook, informed me that meetings would be held soon. This was a few weeks ago, since then I had the occasion to talk with you and you informed me you had other pressing matters. Aside from myself, there are many many people who are awaiting the creation of the Black Arts Movement District. I have talked with artists, vendors and business owners along the 14th Street corridor. They are urgently awaiting the creation of the Black Arts Movement District. I am therefore forming a BAM task force to work on the district which will be an artistic, cultural and economic area. We would like to have a Town Hall Meeting on the BAM District in the City Hall Chambers ASAP. Can you reserve the chambers for the Town Hall Meeting? Please let me hear from you at the earliest.

Sincerely,

Marvin X,
Black Arts Movement District
510-200-4164

Suggested Members for the BAM District Task Force
Angela Davis
Fania Davis
Gregory Pete
Joyce Gordon
Paul Cobb
Dr. Ayodele Nzinga
Phavia Kujichagulia
Tarika Lewis
Vida Silva
Conway Jones, Jr.
Gene Hazzard
Adam Turner
Dr. Elnora T. Webb
Gay Plair Cobb
Cat Brooks
Malcolm Shabazz Hoover
Menhuaim
Mechelle LaChaux
Tureada Mikell
Paradise

If you would like to be part of the BAM Task Force, please let me know. Marvin X: 510-200-4164

Black Arts Movement Dream and Wishlist

I want to see artists and craft persons in the Black Arts Movement District along Oakland's 14th St., just as they are daily on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue and San Francisco's Market Street. This will inspire entrepreneurship or do-for-self economics in our community, as well as inspire cultural consciousness. If youth can sell drugs, they can sell anything, legal goods, gear, music and educational tapes, books, healthy food and vegetables. I don't want to hear problems, I want to hear solutions! The cultural revolution is first, then follows the political revolution!--Marvin X

Black Arts Movement chief architect Amiri Baraka (RIP), Black Panther Party Co-founder Bobby Seale, BAM student Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Ahi Baraka, and Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, in the heart of the BAM District.
photo Gene Hazzard

Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner in the heart of the BAM District, 14th and Broadway.

photo Adam Turner

Black Arts Movement Congressional Recognition from Congresswoman Barbara Lee

Black Arts Movement Proclamation from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

↧

I agree with Donald Trump, "Too hell with politically correctness!"

August 7, 2015, 9:56 am

≫ Next: A Black Man Speaks on Why Iran Needs Nukes to check Global White Supremacy

≪ Previous: UPDATE: The Black Arts Movement District along the 14th Street corridor

Sun Ra taught, "Marvin you so right you wrong!" Such are those in the PC camp. "Don't say the b word, N word, P word, MF word, really, don't say shit." Isn't this why Christ Rock stopped doing concerts at colleges and universities? He said students are so politically correct you can't say shit. Ain't nothing funny to these little ignut motherfuckers who've read two books. They have no sense of humor. Maybe they got this PC bullshit from the adults on the Left, most of whom have no sense of humor. At least the Right wing assholes are funny, one must admit their shit is so stupid it's funny. They're so addicted to white supremacy they don't know they're addicted to white supremacy.

Amiri Baraka taught us in the Black Arts Movement, "If you mean get off the sidewalk, say get off the sidewalk!" Fuck a PC way to say some shit. Call a spade a spade, no innuendo, circumlocution, metaphor.

While we don't agree with Donald Trump's pronouncements, we are yet in the tradition of the Black Arts Movement where freedom of speech was practiced--we were threatened with arrest by the San Francisco and Oakland police for the language in our plays and poetry. Even today, the Black culture police are out and about, snatching the mike from me at every turn. Most recently they gave me an award then immediately snatched the mike before I could finish my remarks. We see what happened to the Chief Black Culture Police, Bill Cosby! As Sun Ra said, "Sometimes you so right, you wrong!"--Marvin X

Donald Trump’s Politically Correct Bullies

July 10, 2015

Billionaire businessman and Presidential candidate Donald Trump has the courage to talk about one of the most serious problems facing America today: illegal immigration.
In doing so, he also boldly attacked an equally serious problem: political correctness.The PC disease has poisoned our language, and makes it impossible to speak in plain English about our challenges as a nation.
For all the crap that politicians spew about wanting to help people, you would think that preventing violent criminals from entering the countryillegally would interest them. Instead, the political correctness police have pounced on Donald Trump, much like Chihuahuas, from all corners of American politics.

Reince Priebus, the weasel Chairman of the Republican National Committee, called Trump and politely told him shut-up (or “tone it down”).
Presidential Candidate Marco Rubio called Trump’s remarks “offensive and inaccurate.”
Candidate Jeb Bush said the “extraordinary ugly kind of comments [were] not reflective of the Republican Party,” and that he was personally offended. (You see, Bush is married to a Mexican woman. We say: so what?)
Major GOP donor John Jordan wants Trump banned from the Presidential debates. That’s real mafioso of you, Mr. Jordan.

And those are the Republicans!* The GOP’s complicity through silence is undoubtedly because the Chamber of Commerce’s greedy desire for cheap labor.
The Democrats and their media allies, meanwhile, have orchestrated a broad smear campaign that is targeting Trump’s business interests. Already he’s lost several lucrative deals.
Where are all Tea Parties? Why aren’t they rallying to defend Trump from the GOP PC-bullies? The issue of illegal immigration is too important. The national network of Tea Parties can and should make their voices heard RIGHT NOW, while it counts!

↧

A Black Man Speaks on Why Iran Needs Nukes to check Global White Supremacy

August 8, 2015, 2:51 am

≫ Next: Poems from Marvin X and Mohja Kahf on the Middle East

≪ Previous: I agree with Donald Trump, "Too hell with politically correctness!"

2 Cor 11:14-15, “… for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light … his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

Farrakhan presents the last chance with the sacrifice of 10,000 warriors in the cause of freedom. Better that ten thousand be sacrificed than one by one in the hood. In Egypt the people laid down in the Square with blankets before the tanks, prepared to give their lives for the cause of freedom. We must be prepared to do the same with 10,000 warriors in Washington DC. Liberty or Death! Le me be counted among them. I have no fear of death. My life and death are all for Allah!

Let those 10,000 who gather in Washington DC not go home until we have freedom, land, reparations, enough to sustain us for the next fifty years. Israel is the example. In fifty years they have became one of the most powerful states in the world, including a possessor of nuclear weapons. Why not Nigguhs wit Nukes to keep us from the dungeons and ovens of white supremacy Americans and Europeans?????????????

From whom did Hitler and his Nazis get the idea of concentration camps? America! A simple fool need only look at the concentration camps of the Indigenous people and the enslaved Africans and the medical experiments that led to the American medical profession. From whom did Hitler and his Nazis get the idea of Eugenics or pseudo scientific racial genocide.

I speak as a Black man in the wilderness of North America. No one asks me anything about any event in the world, yet I have some thoughts. Over a hundred nations have endorsed the Iranian Nuke agreement, including the United Nations. Does it really matter what the USA thinks? Who cares? We know if and when they want, they and their Zionist running dogs will attack Iran without a moment's notice, as the Zionists have done in Iraq and Syria.

I'm for a level playing field in geo and global politics. What right do the Zionists in Israel have to say in the matter of Iran since Israel possesses a full arsenal of Nuclear weapons, additionally they have one of the best armies in the Middle East and the world, so why is anyone concerned about their security and the fake crocodile tears they cry because Iran says it will destroy them. What did America do when the USSR said, "We will bury you?" Didn't America have the force to resist any reality of such pronouncements? Doesn't Israel have the same? Don't fall for the hype, the world of make believe perpetuated by the monkey mind media and Zionist propaganda, in tandem with Uncle Abdullah Arabs in the Sunni nations who are in league with America and her Zionist running dogs, or shall we say the Zionists and her American running dogs."

What a terrible game played upon the peoples of the Middle East who only seek peace and justice. When was the last time you hear Israel talking about peace with justice? Peace without justice is impossible, peace with justice is possible. Let's do what's possible so we can all live in peace.

The Middle East quagmire is such a conundrum that only the most scientific mind can understand the duplicities. Consider, America supports Iranian fighters defending land in Iraq against ISIS, yet ISIS is supported by Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan, Egypt and Israel. Iran supports the regime in Syria, while America only has the Kurds on her side, meanwhile Turkey is bombing the Kurds before they get too much recognition and any possibility of independence for their homeland. Simultaneously, Iran is supposedly supported the Houtis in Yemen while American is helping bomb the Houthis. If you can figure this quagmire out, I will send you five US dollars.

Well, what is a Black Man's perspective? It doesn't matter to us whether Iran has nuclear weapons or not. Does it matter to us that Israel has a nuclear arsenal What does it matter to us North American Africans if Iran obtains NUKES?

For all the talk about us being in the multicultural village, we bring nothing to the table. When we come to sit at the multi-cultural table, we bring nothing for the meal. We come with no unity, no consensus as a national group of people, white the Asians come in unity, Latinos come in unity chanting La RAZ LA RAZA LA RAZA, and we are not mad at them for coming with unity based on mythology, and then the gays, lesbians, transexuals come with their gender agenda. Why should you be mad with them, at least they have an agenda, you come with nothing. You need to go home to get your agenda together, then come to the table with something we all can share, something healing and freeing, liberating. If you have nothing, don't come to the table until you get it together.
--Marvin X

I am so thankful I was trained by killers, robbers, rapists, murderers, counterfeiters, Muslims, pimps, ho's, drug dealers. I'm so thankful they gave me some game, told me to avoid them square ass nigguhs, they said them square nigguhs will get you killed.

Farrakhan wants 10,000. I say give me 100 killers and robbers, drug dealers and I will free Oakland. Better Ax somebody!--Marvin X

Marvin X's Teacher:

Hussain Al-Shahristani, a nuclear scientist who spent nine years in prison because he refused to make the bomb for Saddam Huussain حسين الشهرستاني
lh I send the blessions of As-Salaam Alaikum to my teacher Dr. Hussain Al Shahristani thank you for the Islamic and Arabic lessons you gave me at your apartment in Toronto, Canada --Marvin X ( NAZZAM AL SUDAN EL MUHAJIR)
Shahristani in 2009
Minister of Education
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 September 2014

















Personal details
Born	Hussain Ibrahim Saleh al-Shahristani 1942 (age 72–73) Karbala, Iraq
Nationality	Iraqi
Political party	State of Law Coalition
Alma mater	Imperial College London University of Toronto University of Baghdad
Religion	Shia Islam

Hussain Ibrahim Saleh al-Shahristani (born 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served in different cabinet posts. He is currently Iraq's Minister of Education.

Early life and education

Shahristani was born in 1942 in Karbala, Iraq. His family name, Shahristani, is Iranian and in addition to his native Arabic he has strong command of Persian as a second language.^[1] Shahristani showed an exceptional aptitude for science in Secondary School,^[2] Shahristani received a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London in 1965, and an MSc from the University of Toronto in 1967, from where he also received a PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1970. He specialised in design and building Building Nuclear reactors. Part of his education was also in Russia.^[3]

Career

He was tipped to be the Iraqi Prime Minister during the 2004 discussions, a position which he refused to take it and stated "I have always concentrated on serving the people and providing them with their basic needs, rather than party politics."^[2]

A senior member of the State of Law alliance,^[4] he was previously the deputy speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly under the Iraqi Transitional Government and was considered for the post of Prime Minister in both the current government and the interim government.

He was appointed oil minister in May 2006 after the withdrawal of the Islamic Virtue Party Minister, which was also a Shia from the government coalition. By August, however, he was under pressure as there was a fuel crisis.^[5]

In December 2012 he was named the head of the committee responsible for receiving and addressing the demands of the demonstrators. He has made some significant achievements in period of December 2012 to February 2013.

From 2006 to 2010, Shahristani was Iraq's minister of oil, and he served as acting minister of electricity in 2010.^[6]

Before his arrest and imprisonment Shahristani served as Chief Scientific Advisor to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission. Prior to that, he was a lecturer at Mosul University (1973), an Assistant Professor at Baghdad University (1974), Chief of Baghdad University’s Radioisotope Production Department from 1975-1977, and Chief of the Nuclear Chemistry Department from 1977-1979.^[7]
He is recognised as the architect of Iraq's oil future and during his time Iraq oil output reached a 20-Year high.^[8]

Imprisonment

The key reason why Shahristani was imprisoned is that he was personally requested by Saddam to contribute to a military program to produce Weapons of Mass Destruction. He refused on moral and religious grounds. He was first enticed with money and high government positions in return for his cooperation in building the WMD program Saddam intended.

Former government officials, including Khidir Hamza his successor, have claimed that he was imprisoned for his refusal to cooperate with Saddam's WMD program and his intentions to build nuclear weapons. He was imprisoned personally by Saddam Hussein and was threatened directly by him too. "While imprisoned and tortured at Abu Ghraib prison for 11 years under Saddam Hussein he refused to help build a nuclear weapon for the country."^[9]

He was later sentenced to death in an effort to terrorize him and the sentence was reduced to lifetime imprisonment as regime always hoped he could benefit of his skills and expertise one day. A false hope which never materialized for Saddam's regime. He was put in a solitary confinement prison cell for 8 years and was not allowed to make any communication with his family or the outside world during that period.

In his biography book Escaping to Freedom, he mentions that "the sound of a defective neon light was the highlight of his time during that period since silence was all he could listen to". He could not have a conversation even with his prison guards and food was passed to him through the gap under the prison cell's door. He escaped from Abu Ghraib during the 1991 Gulf War and went to Iran, where he left for UK. He obtained his freedom in an extremely daring 'Hollywood' style escape plan which was thought, orchestrated and implemented by him. He went on to set up humanitarian aid organisations for the millions of Iraqi refugees during the Saddam era.

Having spent more than a decade (1979-1991) as a political prisoner in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison under the regime of Saddam, he escaped during an allied bombing raid on Baghdad during the First Gulf War. H.E. al-Shahristani fled to Iran where he served as head of the Gulf War Victims Organization from 1991-1995. He later continued his support for the victims of Saddams's regime and the Gulf War as head of the Iraqi Political Prisoners Union (2003) and as Chief of the Iraqi Refugees Relief Committee (1998-2003).^[7]

Other positions

Shahristani is a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey United Kingdom.
In 2004, he taught as a professor at Baghdad University, and from 2002 to 2004 he was concurrently a visiting professor at Surrey University in the United Kingdom. In 2003 he was Head of the Iraqi National Academy of Sciences, and prior to his role there, from 1998-2002 was an advisor to the International Technical Research Centre, London, United Kingdom.^[7]

Awards

Shahristani was awarded Roosevelt Freedom from Fear Award 2012. In a video of the award on YouTube Prof. al-Shahristani was presented the award by Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency IEA.

In his speech during the award ceremony he said "I confronted my fear in December 1979 when I had to make a choice: either to work on Saddam’s nuclear weapon program, or pay a price. The choice was simple, and the price turned out to be 11 years and 3 months in prison."

Conversation with Saddam's half-brother

After seven months in jail, Shahristani was taken in front of Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, who offered to free him if he would work on Iraq's secret nuclear weapons programme. "Anybody who refuses to serve his country does not deserve to be alive," Shahristani quoted Tikriti as telling him.

"I agree with you that the person must serve his country but what you are asking me is not a service to the country," Shahristani replied, he said in his book Escaping to Freedom (1999). He was eventually sentenced to 20 years and spent 11 in prison, some in solitary confinement.^[10]

His reaction - Saddam's Trial

"This is the day that the Iraqis have been waiting for. There are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of families who have lost their dear ones. They have been waiting for justice to be executed, and I think that Iraqis have received the news that they've been waiting for too many years."^[11]

2014 Prime Minister To-Be

He has been tipped by analysts close to decision makers in Iraq as a serious contender for the PM job.^[12] On 11 July 2014 he assumed the role of acting foreign minister in addition to his deputy prime ministership, after Kurdish politicians including former Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari withdrew from the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.^[13]

References

"Iran in Iraq: How Much Influence?"(PDF). Crisis Group. 21 March 2005. p. 5. Retrieved 14 July 2014.

"Iraq oil minister Shahristani staked future on oil auctions". The National. Retrieved 17 February 2013.

[1], Black Sea Energy & Economic Forum^{[dead link]}

[2]^{[dead link]}

Civil War Violence Explodes Throughout Iraq, Informed Comment, 28 August 2006^{[dubious– discuss]}

Shahristani given temporary power portfolio, "Iraq Oil Report", 23 June 2010

(Norwegian)http://www.nupi.no/content/download/210373/755528/file/CV_Shahristani.pdf

Ajrash first=Kadhim (22 December 2011). "Iraq Oil Output Has Reached a 20-Year High, Shahristani Says". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 February 2013.

Profile: Hussain al-Shahristani, Times Online, 26 May 2004.

Gamal, Rania El (18 December 2010). "Shahristani, architect of Iraq's oil future". Reuters. Retrieved 17 February 2013.

"Saddam hanged: Reaction in quotes". BBC News. 30 December 2006. Retrieved 17 February 2013.

"Al-Maliki Does Not Get a Third Term in Iraq, so what?". Especialview. 11 February 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2013.

"Tensions mount between Baghdad and Kurdish region as Kurds seize oil fields". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 July 2014.

↧

Poems from Marvin X and Mohja Kahf on the Middle East

August 8, 2015, 4:04 am

≫ Next: Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine-Summer 2015

≪ Previous: A Black Man Speaks on Why Iran Needs Nukes to check Global White Supremacy

Poems for Palestine, Egypt, Syria by Marvin X and Mohja Kahf

PALESTINE by Marvin X (Imam Maalik El Muhajir)

I am not an Arab, I am not a Jew
Abraham is not my father, Palestine is not my home
But I would fight any man
Who kicked me out of my house
To dwell in a tent
I would fight
To the ends of the earth
Someone who said to me
I want your house
Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago
I want your land

Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago.
Jets would not stop me
From returning to my home
Uncle toms would not stop me
Cluster bombs would not stop me
Bullets I would defy.
No man can take the house of another
And expect to live in peace
There is no peace for thieves
There is no peace for those who murder
For myths and ancient rituals
Wail at the wall

Settle in "Judea" and "Samaria"
But fate awaits you
You will never sleep with peace

You will never walk without listening.
I shall cross the River Jordan
With Justice in my hand
I shall return to Jerusalem
And establish my house of peace,
Thus said the Lord.
© 2000 by Marvin X (Imam Maalik El Muhajir)

After Friday Prayers

Egypt: After Friday Prayers

After Friday Prayers
After salat
salaam-alaikum
al humdulilah
we shall meet in the streets
to shout no more pharaoh
no more presidents for life
no more American aide for guns and tear gas
no more uncle abdullah
no more
no more reactionary theology
no honor killings
suppression of women's dignity
no more
after Friday prayers
in Tunisia
Cairo
Yemen
Sudan
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Persian Gulf
no more
after Fatihah/Ikhlas
we shall meet the guns of Pharaoh Mubarak
we shall meet the tear gas
even death even
we shall meet
and go to paradise
for freedom
we have no fear of Pharaoh's guns/tear gas
no fear no more
we are mostly young and invincible
we have the model
we shall meet in the streets
to live again
to breathe
to love
to take control of our lives
to feed our families
to fly in the sun of freedom and liberty.
--Marvin X

1/27/11

To Egypt With Love

Dedicated to my son, Abdul (Darrel P. Jackmon, RIP)

He studied at the American University in Egypt

fell in love in Egypt

some Ghanian ambassador's daughter

told him don't give no woman keys to your apartment

he never did

not even the ambassador's daughter, he told me

he loved Egypt

spoke the language

graduated UC Berkeley in Arabic and Middle Eastern Literature

said the Africans were slaves throughout the Middle East

Arabs took their passports

making them slaves

racism was pervasive

unsustainable

yet understandable

they are not the aboriginal Arabs

not the Arabs of Sabah

Queen of Sabah's land

who ruled from Canaan to Jerusalem to the Persian Gulf

Queen of Sabah

who fascinated King Solomon

My son loved Arabic, Persian

Fulbright fellowship to University of Damascus

Syrian intelligence interrogated him daily

why was he hanging around those filthy Palestinians

Why did he swim at the American embassy

Dad, they tried to recruit me for the C.I.A

Mormons controlled the US Embassy

wanted me to be a Mormon

Toward the end my son became a Mormon

lived with Eldridge Cleaver

himself a Mormon, for a time

said Eldridge got strange phone calls

from strange people

we know Eldridge was dr. strangelove

The Ghanaian woman came to see my son in Cali

I do not know what happened

but she went home

In the end he loved a Portuguese woman

he loved Brazil

said he wanted to live in Bahia

dance Condomble

a man of the world

at his funeral came his friends

no black man no black woman

Asians whites

after all

he was a man of the world

what could he say to a nigguh in the ghetto

his travels to Africa, Egypt, Jerusalem, Brazil,Japan, what could he say to a ghetto nigguh

In Japan, he said they teach the women to say three things:

yes, thank you and I'm sorry

Japanese woman he got pregnant said no to his black baby

so she could go home in peace

family told her don't bring no black baby home.

Abdul loved the Middle East

loved Persian

poetry

the rhythms of the language

poets who dervish.

Egypt may fall today tomorrow

my son will be pleased

Pharaoh Mubarak is no more

the regime is history

what a story to tell my son

who walked into a train

in his midnight madness

Dr. Hare said he was like Malcolm and Martin

he was 38, they were 39

he self destructed

suicide and homicide is the same

different sides of the same coin.

Let Egypt arise for the sons and daughters who have suffered

a long suffering that has come to an end.

Mubarak a page in history

a pitiful note in the eternal song of a people.

--Marvin X

1/31/11

Two Poems for the People of Syria

Oh, Mohja
how much water can run from rivers to sea
how much blood can soak the earth
the guns of tyrants know no end
a people awakened are bigger than bullets
there is no sleep in their eyes
no more stunted backs and fear of broken limbs
even men, women and children are humble with sacrifice
the old the young play their roles
with smiles they endure torture chambers
with laughs they submit to rape and mutilations
there is no victory for oppressors
whose days are numbered
as the clock ticks as the sun rises
let the people continue til victory
surely they smell it on their hands
taste it on lips
believe it in their hearts
know it in their minds
no more backwardness no fear
let there be resistance til victory.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir

Syrian poet/professor Dr. Mohja Kahf

Oh Marvin, how much blood can soak the earth?

The angels asked, “will you create a species who will shed blood

and overrun the earth with evil?”

And it turns out “rivers of blood” is no metaphor:

see the stones of narrow alleys in Duma

shiny with blood hissing from humans? Dark

and dazzling, it keeps pouring and pumping

from the inexhaustible soft flesh of Syrians,

and neither regime cluster bombs from the air,

nor rebel car bombs on the ground,

ask them their names before they die.

They are mowed down like wheat harvested by machine,

and every stalk has seven ears, and every ear a hundred grains.

They bleed like irrigation canals into the earth.

Even one little girl in Idlib with a carotid artery cut

becomes a river of blood. Who knew she could be a river

running all the way over the ocean, to you,

draining me of my heart? And God said to the angels,

“I know what you know not.” But right now,

the angels seem right. Cut the coyness, God;

learn the names of all the Syrians.

See what your species has done.

--Mohja Kahf

↧

Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine-Summer 2015

August 10, 2015, 3:31 pm

≫ Next: Mythology of Pussy and Dick: Man kills 8 in Texas: 2 adults, six children because he owned his ex-woman who was married to another man

≪ Previous: Poems from Marvin X and Mohja Kahf on the Middle East

Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine - Summer 2015
Black Arts Movement Poet Marvin X at rally for Gaza, Seattle WA

The past year has been one of high-profile growth for Black-Palestinian solidarity. Out of the terror directed against us—from numerous attacks on Black life to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank—we have witnessed the emergence of strengthened resilience and joint struggle between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, while St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. A delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and more last November, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent Black protesters multiple letters of solidarity. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements:On the one-year anniversary of 2014's Gaza massacre, in the 48th year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians’ ongoing Nakba (the Arabic word for Israel's ethnic cleansing)--and in the fourth century of Black oppression in the present-day United States--we, the undersigned Black activists, artists, scholars, writers, and political prisoners offer this letter of reaffirmed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.
We can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s violence. We remain outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed through its siege by land, sea and air, in the most recent of three military offensives against Gaza in six years. We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of children Israel killed in an operation it called “defensive.” We reject Israel’s framing of itself as a victim. Anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter. With 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre's effects continue to devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.
Israel’s injustice and cruelty toward Palestinians is not limited to Gaza and its problem is not with any particular Palestinian party. The oppression of Palestinians extends throughout the occupied territories, within Israel’s 1948 borders, and into neighboring countries. The Israeli Occupation Forces continue to kill protesters—including children—conduct night raids on civilians, hold hundreds of people under indefinite detention, and demolish homes while expanding illegal Jewish-only settlements. Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu, incite against Palestinian citizens within Israel’s recognized borders, where over 50 laws discriminate against non-Jewish people.
Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 5 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The refugees’ right to return to their homeland in present-day Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.
Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to the Zionist state of Israel, a colonial state built on ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and sovereignty. While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in Israel/Palestine is distinct from what took place in the United States and South Africa, we continue to see connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black people.
Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries. Soldiers, police, and courts justify lethal force against us and our children who pose no imminent threat. And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and soldiers from the two countries train side by side.
US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance “illegitimate” or “terrorism.” These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US. We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African population. Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea "infiltrators" and detain them in the desert, while the state has sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent. These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.
We know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with over $3 billion annually. We call on the US government to end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black and US institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key issue of our time.
As the BDS movement grows, we offer G4S, the world’s largest private security company, as a target for further joint struggle. G4S harms thousands of Palestinian political prisoners illegally held in Israel and hundreds of Black and brown youth held in its privatized juvenile prisons in the US. The corporation profits from incarceration and deportation from the US and Palestine, to the UK, South Africa, and Australia. We reject notions of “security” that make any of our groups unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us are.
We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us. It is to Palestinians, as well as the Israeli and US governments, that we declare our commitment to working through cultural, economic, and political means to ensure Palestinian liberation at the same time as we work towards our own. We encourage activists to use this statement to advance solidarity with Palestine and we also pressure our own Black political figures to finally take action on this issue. As we continue these transnational conversations and interactions, we aim to sharpen our practice of joint struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and the various racisms embedded in and around our societies.
Towards liberation,

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Instructions

We will be publishing the statement and list of signatories in the next 48 hours and need to make sure all signatures fit into the guidelines below: 1) You are a Black/Afrikan/Afro-descendant person or organization. We have already asked that people who are not Black/Afro-identified remove themselves from the statement and offer this as a final reminder. 2) You are comfortable with your name being published. By signing the statement, you are agreeing to have your name published as part of a list of signatories. 3) You are using a publicly-identifiable name (e.g. legal name, stage name, or public alias). For style purposes, if you would like your name abbreviated, we ask that you use your first name initial, and spell out your last name. For example, Khury Petersen-Smith would be abbreviated "K. Petersen-Smith," and not "Khury PS."

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PALESTINE by Marvin X

I am not an Arab, I am not a Jew
Abraham is not my father, Palestine is not my home
But I would fight any man
Who kicked me out of my house
To dwell in a tent
I would fight
To the ends of the earth
Someone who said to me
I want your house
Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago
I want your land

Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago.
Jets would not stop me
From returning to my home
Uncle toms would not stop me
Cluster bombs would not stop me
Bullets I would defy.
No man can take the house of another
And expect to live in peace
There is no peace for thieves
There is no peace for those who murder
For myths and ancient rituals
Wail at the wall

Settle in "Judea" and "Samaria"
But fate awaits you
You will never sleep with peace

You will never walk without listening.
I shall cross the River Jordan
With Justice in my hand
I shall return to Jerusalem
And establish my house of peace,
Thus said the Lord.
© Marvin X, Black Scholar Magazine, circa 1970

↧

Mythology of Pussy and Dick: Man kills 8 in Texas: 2 adults, six children because he owned his ex-woman who was married to another man

August 10, 2015, 5:05 pm

≫ Next: Part One: How a Black Girl from Oakland Got to Ghana, West Africa

≪ Previous: Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine-Summer 2015

Those who criticize my pamphlet Mythology of Pussy and Dick, should ask themselves if their "politically correct" language would have saved the psychopathic murderer of two adults and six children, including his own son and five children by his former partner and her new husband. Maybe if he had read my little pamphlet he would have learned in no uncertain terms that he did not own his partner, that she was not his chattel property, especially after she married another man and had five children by him. Obviously, somebody needed to inform Mr. Conley his former partner had the right to her own life, no matter his patriarchal mythology that reached the pathological. Somebody needed to tell him, "You don't own the pussy, buddy, get over it. Move on down the line. Don't get stuck on stupid. She has the human right to give her pussy to whomever she pleases. Obviously she was pleased to give it to her new husband, Mr. Jackson.

Mr. Conley is not the first or the last man who thinks his woman is his chattel or personal property, the result of patriarchal socialization. The jails and prisons are full of cave men who suffer from the addiction to the patriarchal mythology. For sure, no Miller Lite language will break through their thick skulls. They need a raw message, especially from someone such as myself who once upon a time thought like them! Let our prayers go out to the adults and children who suffered the death blows of Mr. Conley.--Marvin X, 9/10/15

FYI, if you know someone who could use my 18-page pamphlet, hit me at jmarvinx@yahoo.com. I will send you a free online version. mx

Man Kills Ex-Wife, Her New Husband and Five Children in Their Home

August 10, 2015

By Nigel Boys

During a welfare check of a family on the 2200 block of Falling Oaks in Houston, Texas, police discovered the scene of a mass murder, allegedly committed by the occupant of the house’s former husband, 49-year-old David Ray Conley III.

The Daily Mail reports that Conley had recently moved out of the family home. Conley told the police that when he returned, the locks had been changed. He found an open window on Saturday night through which he entered and allegedly proceeded to restrain and kill the eight occupants he found.

Conley’s ex-wife, 40-year-old Valerie Jackson and her 50-year-old husband Dwayne Jackson were later identified as two of the victims, along with their five children, Jonah, 6, Trinity, 7, Caleb, 9, Dwayne Jr., 10 and 11-year-old Honesty. The former convict’s 13-year-old son, Nathaniel, was also found killed.

According to criminal records, Conley served nine months in jail after he was arrested for domestic assault in 2013 at the same residence where the murders occured. Doctors at the home near Veterans Memorial and Fallbrook Drive said that all eight victims on Saturday died at the scene after suffering gunshot wounds to the head, according to KHOU-TV.

KHOU-TV reports that deputies arrived at the scene of the murder after receiving information that a man inside the home was wanted on a warrant for aggravated assault on a family member, according to Harris County Sheriff spokesman Thomas Gilliland. He added that while the deputies were waiting for a High Risk Operations Unit (HROU) to arrive, they noticed the body of a juvenile through a window, causing four officers to force their way into the home.

After an hour-long stand-off with police inside the house, Conley was arrested after negotiating his surrender with members of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, HROU, and the Hostage Negotiation Team.

Conley was charged with capital murder and is being held in the Harris County Jail. No attorney is currently listed for his defense, according to the Daily Mail. He was denied bond by a judge on Sunday afternoon at a probable cause hearing where his arrest affidavit was read out in court. Conley was not present at the hearing.

The most recent criminal record for Conley is for an assault charge that occurred last month; however, his criminal history dates back to at least 1988, according to court records. He was arrested last month for allegedly assaulting the woman he was living with at the home where the bodies were found.

The case is still pending in which court documents allege that Conley pushed the woman’s head against a refrigerator multiple times when she tried to stop him from disciplining her son with a belt.
He was sentenced to five years in prison for retaliation in 2000 after he was accused of threatening to kill his girlfriend at the time, her baby and himself. Conley allegedly put a knife to her throat. He reportedly retaliated against her after she had filed an assault charge against him for cutting her with a knife and punching her in the face.

Prosecutors claim that Conley told investigators that he restrained eight people on Saturday with metal handcuffs, before shooting them in the back of the head.

“We’re here today on a very sad day,” said Chief deputy Tim Cannon at a press conference held by the sheriff’s office on Sunday afternoon. “We’re here with our brothers in arms standing behind us because we’re all hurting,” he said adding that the incident is a tragedy with which the community is all too familiar.

It’s a difficult day for us at the sheriff’s office,” Cannon continued. “Once again, a tragedy has struck… our city. Our hearts go out to those… affected by this tragedy.”

“Cops were walking around with their handguns out, telling people to remain in their houses,” said 19-year-old Alan Cartagena, adding that he was attending a barbecue at a home a couple houses away from the tragedy.

Deputies started going around the neighborhood knocking on doors around 11 p.m., Cartagena continued. “They were also telling them to evacuate. It was extremely scary,” he said, adding that he had heard one gunshot, but wasn’t sure if there were more.

↧

Part One: How a Black Girl from Oakland Got to Ghana, West Africa

August 11, 2015, 6:14 am

≫ Next: I AM

≪ Previous: Mythology of Pussy and Dick: Man kills 8 in Texas: 2 adults, six children because he owned his ex-woman who was married to another man

Born at Alta Bates Hospital, Berkeley, Muhammida El Muhajir (the praiseworthy pilgrim), August 9, this Sun in Leo child couldn't wait to get out of her mother's womb; she was a primo baby--six months inside her mother was enough. This child had things to do!

During her early years in Oakland, she attended Clara Muhammad's University of Islam and the Black Panther School on International Blvd. One of her babysitters was Wanda Sabir, now instructor at College of Alameda and writer for the New Bayview Newspaper. Wanda's parents often read to her Marvin X's classic fable The Black Bird. It was one of the few stories conscious parents read their children.

Muhammida didn't wait for her parents to pass the baton, as a track star, she took the baton and ran for her life, traveling the world in the tradition of the family name El Muhajirs (the pilgrims), ending in Ghana, West Africa, where she works at a school for the new technology.

Many of her friends had preceded her to Ghana, but on one visit she decided to apply for a job and has decided to live in Ghana although she owns property in Brooklyn. She told Ebony she had reached the glass ceiling in America. There's only so far a Black girl can go. I went to the top but I know there is more I can accomplish. Plus, I don't want my daughter to be damaged by growing up in the toxic environment of American racism and white supremacy. Ghana may not have electricity 24/7, but they don't have white supremacy 24/7. I can go to the high class stores and hotels and not be followed around. Who needs to go through this insanity in America? I refuse to do so.

I have been coming to Africa since I was 15 so it's not new to me. I am very much at home here, as I am anywhere in the world. I have friends all over the world. When her mother accompanied her to England and Paris, she said, "My daughter is as well known on the streets on London and Paris as she is on the streets of Harlem and Brooklyn."

Producer of Keyshia Cole Day in Oakland, Frank Ogawa Plaza, she enjoys a moment with her father whom she hired to write and recite a poem to bring Keyshia on stage.

Muhammida with Ghanian poets and rappers: Block, EL, Muhammida, Reggie

Muhammida and Mary J. Blige on a project to stop human trafficking of young women

Daughter Mahadevi, speaks French and Mandarin

Before producing Keyshia Cole Day in Oakland, way back when she was working for NIKE, she produced the VIP party for the NBA All Star Games at NIKETOWN in Union Square, San Francisco; yes, she had parties on all seven floors of NIKETOWN.

Continued

↧

I AM

August 11, 2015, 8:12 pm

≫ Next: Amnesty International backs decriminalisation of prostitution

≪ Previous: Part One: How a Black Girl from Oakland Got to Ghana, West Africa

I Am

by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

I have a majick life

unlikely but true fiction

worthy times are mine

I have a majick life

attracting the miraculous

the preciously unpredictable

surrounded by confirmation

unfolding from nothing

taller than MT Thai

on time every time in time

& it rhyme a lucid dream of a life

end of the rainbow and back again

lavish Godz overflowing abundance

here glowing touched by ancestors

blessed I have a majick life

I attract majick beings in

process of

miracle making walking like

everyday ordinary folk extraordinary

reality for real done seen 'em walk on

water and turned it to wine

& live to remix the story

been touched by soothsayers

embraced by prophets

mentored by genesis

talked to by the dead

fed by the universe

blessed to serve light bread

feeding many being fed by many

in the womb of the circle remembering

rich beyond measure not weighed down

by the material praying to birds who

carry messages to other realms

answers delivered gratefully received

meant to be shelter arms open

candles lit doors unlocked embracing

I am that I am who I was sent to be

and so it is and shall be

oil on the door

cowrie in my pockets

pennies on the door steps

miracles happen here

↧

Amnesty International backs decriminalisation of prostitution

August 12, 2015, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: Black Bird Press News & Review: Is Burn, Baby, Burn, Marvin X's Greatest poem, written shortly after the Watts Rebellion, 1965?

≪ Previous: I AM

Delegates from around the world gathered in Dublin for the meeting, and voted to adopt a resolution that will allow the organisation to develop and adopt a pro-decriminalisation policy.
The resolution recommends that the full decriminalisation of all aspects of consensual sex work is supported by the organisation.

Salil Shetty, Amnesty's Secretary General, said about the resolution: "We recognise that this critical human rights issue is hugely complex and that is why we have addressed this issue from the perspective of international human rights standards."

Amnesty's announcement that they would consider decriminalisation was criticised by some prominent groups (AFP/Getty)"We also consulted with our global movement to take on board different views from around the world."

Amnesty International now joins a host of other groups in their support for decriminalisation, including the World Health Organisation, the United Nations AIDS programme UNAIDS, and leading medical journal The Lancet.

These groups see the stigma and criminalisation that surrounds prostitution as roadblocks to stopping abuse, trafficking and the spread of diseases like HIV and AIDS.

Some proponents also see the decriminalisation of prostitution as simply an extension of the idea that two consenting adults should be able to have sex without the interference of the government.
However, there is opposition to the idea, most prominently from actors like Lena Dunham, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet and many others.

They were included in a list of signatories on a letter to Amnesty International written by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.

It said that the decriminalisation policy "flies in the face of [Amnesty International's] historical reputation."

It also said the organisation's proposal was "incomprehensible", and said the decriminalisation of prostitution would increase the rates of trafficking and abuse.

The English Collective of Prostitutes has been fighting for the abolition of laws that criminalise sex workers since its establishment in 1975 (AFP/Getty)In its statement, Amnesty makes it clear that it remains opposed to human trafficking, which it says should be criminalised "as a matter of international law."

It also calls prostitution "a form of violence against women and an affront to human dignity".
Much has been made of the 'Swedish model' of prostitution legislation - in which selling sex is legal, but buying it is punishable by hefty fines or prison sentences up to six months.

Marvin X calls for all Men to March who love ho's and multiple wives

Marvin X is calling upon all real men to stand up and organize themselves for the right to have as many wives as they please and unlimited ho's (sex workers). If John can marry John, Mary can marry Mary, I see no reason Billy cannot have as many wives as he pleases and unlimited ho's (sex workers). We should begin with a march to let the world know our nuts are out of the sand! If you support this project, hit me back ASAP with your comment. Haters and masculine feminists need not reply.

Maestro Marvin X with his Black Arts Movement Poets Choir & Arkestra; David Murray on sax, Earl Davis on trumpet; Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland, May 17, 2014

After da nut, then what?

Marvin X

FROM THE MYTHOLOGY OF PUSSY AND DICK (EXPANDED VERSION): A POETIC DIALOGUE ON PSYCHOSOCIAL SEXUALITY by Marvin X, unpublished

If you love you

I love you

don’t make me love you

if you don’t love you

it’s yo thang

do what ya wanna do

just be true to you

to you yo life

to me mine

lakum dinu kum wa liya din.

no time to hate ya

let me live my life

don’t block me

me no block you

life is a micro second in time

moments precious

no time to hate

a waste

enjoy yourself

don’t worry bout billy and billy

sally and sally

enjoy yourself

organize yourself

like billy and billy and sally and sally

After da nut then what

satisfied bewildered overwhelmed

wow

smile to frown

a moment lost in the wind

The white boy told us

don’t live your life

like a candle in the wind.

Let people be happy

find your bliss

does it involve anyone else

except a friend who comes in love

love da one ya wit

praise them for loving you

let the other people be happy

don’t rain hate

do you know their story pain trauma

let them be

they smile

do you smile in your lover’s eyes

are you thankful and thoughtful

like Sly Stone

It’s a family affair

let lovers love

ease the pain express joy

the mystery of it all

a momentary thing

but standing tall in the night

be thankful for lovers

who know love is all there is

who find joy in the night or early morn

sing along with them their happiness

can you dance your dance of joy

can you say wow.

After da nut then what

it is the most sacred of things

precious

even among the sex workers

praise those with zest

Oriental touch

happy ending

tip for attitude

thank God he sent them to bless you in the night/early morn

treat them with kindness

God sent them to you

Didn’t Jesus love dem ho’s

they washed his feet

who touched the hem of his garment?

After da nut then what

in all your joy look for spirit person

dwelling in the higher self

a tuning fork

steel sharpens steel

water finds itself

drink from the well of love

nothing else

goin on

up in here.

—Marvin X

↧

Black Bird Press News & Review: Is Burn, Baby, Burn, Marvin X's Greatest poem, written shortly after the Watts Rebellion, 1965?

August 12, 2015, 3:16 pm

≫ Next: Black August: Killing of San Quentin Six inmate Hugo Pinell sparks inmate reaction

≪ Previous: Amnesty International backs decriminalisation of prostitution

Black Bird Press News & Review: Is Burn, Baby, Burn, Marvin X's Greatest poem, written shortly after the Watts Rebellion, 1965?

↧

Black August: Killing of San Quentin Six inmate Hugo Pinell sparks inmate reaction

August 13, 2015, 7:41 am

≫ Next: Blacks 4 Palestine needs your signature now!

≪ Previous: Black Bird Press News & Review: Is Burn, Baby, Burn, Marvin X's Greatest poem, written shortly after the Watts Rebellion, 1965?

Killing of 'San Quentin Six' inmate Hugo Pinell sparks New Folsom prison riot

BY Doyle Murphy , Deborah Hastings

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Wednesday, August 12, 2015, 6:14 PM

Updated: Thursday, August 13, 2015, 8:31 AM

California Department of Corrections

Hugo Pinell, a member of the infamous 'San Quentin Six,' was killed on Wednesday during a prison riot at California State Prison-Sacramento, authorities say.

A notorious inmate, who was part of a deadly prison escape attempt in 1971, was stabbed to death on Wednesday at New Folsom prison in California, triggering a riot of about 70 inmates, authorities said.
Hugo Pinell, 71, was once one of the country's most infamous prisoners. The convicted rapist was one of the "San Quentin Six" whose escape attempt ended the lives of six people, including two corrections officers, three inmates and George Jackson, founder of the Black Guerilla Family prison gang, a corrections spokeswoman said.

george_jackson_books

A fellow inmate attacked Pinell on Wednesday in the exercise yard, sparking a behind-bars battle.
The violence broke out around 1 p.m. local time in a maximum security general population yard of the state prison, authorities said.

"Inmate-made weapons were used" during the brawl, authorities said.

Long live the spirit of Yogi (Hugo Pinell), long live George Jackson, BGF!

The San Quentin Six

Bottom row, left to right: Johnny Spain, David Johnson, Willie Tate; top row, left to right: Fleeta Drumgo, Luis Talamantez and Hugo Pinell

The San Quentin Six were a group of six inmates at San Quentin State Prison in California (Hugo Pinell, Willie Tate, Johnny Larry Spain, David Johnson, Fleeta Drumgo and Luis Talamantez) who were accused of participating in an August 21, 1971 escape attempt that left six people dead, including George Jackson, founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang. Costing more than $2 million, their 16-month trial was the longest in the state's history at the time and was dubbed "The Longest Trial" by Time magazine.^[1]^[2] Of the six defendants, one was convicted of murder, two were convicted of assault on prison guards, and three were acquitted of all charges.

During the escape, which sparked a riot on the cellblock, Jackson had a .32 caliber pistol allegedly smuggled into the prison by attorney Stephen Bingham (immediately after the incident, Bingham went on the run and fled the country for 13 years; he returned in 1984 to stand trial, and was acquitted of all charges in 1986). During the riot caused by Jackson and two dozen other prisoners, three corrections officers and two inmates were tortured and killed.

In addition to Jackson, those killed in the altercation were guards Paul E. Krasenes, 52, Frank DeLeon, 44, and Jere P. Graham, 39, as well as inmates John Lynn, 29, and Ronald L. Kane, 28.^[3] Spain was found guilty in the shooting deaths of guards DeLeon and Graham, Pinell was convicted of cutting the throats of guards Charles Breckenridge and Urbano Rubiaco, Jr., and Johnson was convicted of assaulting Breckenridge.^[3] There were no convictions for the killings of Krasenes, Lynn, or Kane.^[3] Cleared of all charges, Drumgo, Talamantaz, and Tate were found not guilty on various counts of murder, conspiracy, and assault.

↧

Blacks 4 Palestine needs your signature now!

August 13, 2015, 10:16 am

≫ Next: Part One: How a Black Girl from Oakland Got to Ghana, West Africa

≪ Previous: Black August: Killing of San Quentin Six inmate Hugo Pinell sparks inmate reaction

Black Arts Movement Poet Marvin X at Gaza Rally, Seattle WA

From: Black4Palestine
To: Marvin X, Black Arts Movement District, Oakland CA
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 9:26 AM
Subject: Pushing for 1,000 signatures before our statement is published next week!

Peace everyone,

We wanted to give you a couple of updates on publishing the statement:

The statement will debut in Ebony next week!
The statement will remain open for additional signatures until the end of Monday
We currently have 700 individuals and 29 organizations signed on and we'd like to reach 1,000 over the next five days

If we can add 100-150 signatures by Friday, we'll be in pretty good shape! Can everyone reach out to 5-10 people or organizing lists today? If everyone only gets one new person to sign, we'll still be at 1,500!

We encourage organizations to sign the statement as well. If your org has already signed on, please send another blast asking for individual signatures.

Sample appeals for signatures are below, as well as a list of the orgs and some of the notable figures who have signed so far.

We recognize we've said that the statement is being closed/re-opened/published a few times now and appreciate your patience--it's taken us more time than expected to iron things out, but the statement has only grown stronger in that time.

In love and in struggle,

Kristian & Khury

Here are some sample social media messages. We still recommend posting on Facebook/mailing lists over Twitter, as the latter opens us up more to getting trolled by anonymous people.

700 Black activists, artists, and scholars have signed this statement of solidarity with Palestine. Help us get to 1,000 over the next five days!

A group of Black activists, artists, scholars, and writers are circulating a solidarity statement with Palestine. We're trying to add 300 signatures by Monday. Will you read, sign and share it? http://www.blackforpalestine.com/

Join Angela Davis, Cornel West, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and me in signing this Black Statement of Solidarity with Palestine! http://www.blackforpalestine.com/

Here is a list of organizations and notable signatories to help with your efforts:

Individuals

Angela Davis

Bill Fletcher, Jr.

Boots Riley

Cornel West

dream hampton

Emory Douglas

Jasiri X

Mumia Abu Jamal

Phil Hutchings

Robin DG Kelley

Rosa Clemente

Sundiata Acoli

Talib Kweli

Tef Poe

Marvin X

Organizations

Amistad Law Project

Assata's Daughters

Baltimore Bloc

Barry University Black Student Union

Black Arts Movement District, Oakland

Black Autonomy Federation-North East Branch

Black Bottom, LLC

Black Student Alliance at Yale

Black Student Alliance Executive Board

- St. Louis University

Black Unity Group

BlaQue UCLA

oalition of African Lesbians

Columbia University Black Students' Organization

Columbus Coalition on Mental Health, Addiction & Mass Incarceration

Dorothy Cotton Institute

Friends of the Congo

Hands Up United

Muslim American Society - South Florida

Muslims for Economic, Racial and Reproductive Justice Network for the Elimination of Police Violence

New Afrikan Independence Party

Organization for Black Struggle

Peace by Piece

Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts

Stanford NAACP Executive Committee

The Dream Defenders

Tribe X

UCLA Afrikan Student Union

Ujima People's Progress Party

Wisdom Within Health & Wellness

PALESTINE by Marvin X (El Muhajir)

I am not an Arab, I am not a Jew
Abraham is not my father, Palestine is not my home
But I would fight any man
Who kicked me out of my house
To dwell in a tent
I would fight
To the ends of the earth
Someone who said to me
I want your house
Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago
I want your land

Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago.
Jets would not stop me
From returning to my home
Uncle toms would not stop me
Cluster bombs would not stop me
Bullets I would defy.
No man can take the house of another
And expect to live in peace
There is no peace for thieves
There is no peace for those who murder
For myths and ancient rituals
Wail at the wall

Settle in "Judea" and "Samaria"
But fate awaits you
You will never sleep with peace

You will never walk without listening.
I shall cross the River Jordan
With Justice in my hand
I shall return to Jerusalem
And establish my house of peace,
Thus said the Lord.

Two Poems for the People of Syria

Syrian poet/professor Dr. Mohja Kahf

Oh Marvin, how much blood can soak the earth?

The angels asked, “will you create a species who will shed blood

and overrun the earth with evil?”

And it turns out “rivers of blood” is no metaphor:

see the stones of narrow alleys in Duma

shiny with blood hissing from humans? Dark

and dazzling, it keeps pouring and pumping

from the inexhaustible soft flesh of Syrians,

and neither regime cluster bombs from the air,

nor rebel car bombs on the ground,

ask them their names before they die.

They are mowed down like wheat harvested by machine,

and every stalk has seven ears, and every ear a hundred grains.

They bleed like irrigation canals into the earth.

Even one little girl in Idlib with a carotid artery cut

becomes a river of blood. Who knew she could be a river

running all the way over the ocean, to you,

draining me of my heart? And God said to the angels,

“I know what you know not.” But right now,

the angels seem right. Cut the coyness, God;

learn the names of all the Syrians.

See what your species has done.

--Mohja Kahf

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

↧

Part One: How a Black Girl from Oakland Got to Ghana, West Africa

August 11, 2015, 6:14 am

≫ Next: Black August: Hugo Pinell down in Cali, BPP Dhoruba Bin Wahad jaw broken in ATL clash with NBPP

≪ Previous: Blacks 4 Palestine needs your signature now!

Left to Right, Nisa Ra, mother of Muhammida; Mrs. Amina Baraka and Muhammida El Muhajir

Born in Berkeley CA, Muhammida El Muhajir, spent her earliest years in the Bay Area schooling in Oakland and San Francisco before moving to the East Coast.

After receiving a full track scholarship to Howard University (B.S., Microbiology), she began traveling the world in the tradition of the family name El Muhajirs (the pilgrims). She was selected as an International Fellow at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana where she provided business development for Ghanaian and Nigerian tech startups and young entrepreneurs. “Working with MEST has given me an opportunity to work in Africa with some of the continent’s most brilliant minds while also being connected to Silicon Valley (where Meltwater corporate is based) and the global tech community.”

When asked about working and living in Africa, she recently told Ebony.com, "Ghana may not have electricity 24/7 but I can go to the high class stores and hotels and not be followed around. It is refreshing to live in a society where race does not dictate every aspect of my life."

I have been traveling to Africa since I was 15 so it's not new to me. I am very much at home here, as I am in any of the countries I have frequently visited and worked as an event producer, including Brazil, Japan and France.

Muhammida’s international endeavors also include her work as a filmmaker producing the ground breaking documentary, “Hip Hop: the New World Order” which explores the global impact of hip hop music and culture.

She has presented at The United Nations, Oxford University and UC Berkeley. Her works have been incorporated into the curriculum at The New School, The University of Sheffield (UK) and Harvard University.

Links: meltwater.org

hiphopisglobal.com

beautyradical.com

Producer of Keyshia Cole Day in Oakland, Frank Ogawa Plaza, she enjoys a moment with her father whom she hired to write and recite a poem to bring Keyshia on stage.

Muhammida with Ghanian poets and rappers: Block, EL, Muhammida, Reggie

Muhammida and Mary J. Blige on a project to stop human trafficking of young women

Daughter Mahadevi speaks French and Mandarin

↧

Black August: Hugo Pinell down in Cali, BPP Dhoruba Bin Wahad jaw broken in ATL clash with NBPP

August 14, 2015, 7:51 am

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≪ Previous: Part One: How a Black Girl from Oakland Got to Ghana, West Africa

Movement Activists Violently Attacked at Atlanta Conference

On Saturday, August 8, 2015, a group of six Black Liberation Movement activists were violently attacked at a downtown Atlanta hotel. The group included members of the Free The People Movement, including their Coordinator, Kalonji Jama Changa, members of the Nation of Gods and Earths and Dhoruba Bin Wahad, the internationally recognized former Black Panther Party leader and political prisoner of 19 years. The group was jumped by 25 to 30 members of The New Black Panther Party at “The Power Belongs to the People 2015 Summit” in Atlanta, Georgia, an event hosted by the New Black Panther Party.

According to eyewitnesses, 71 year-old Dhoruba Bin Wahad and the others approached the side of the stage where attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz was speaking. While standing there, Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panther Party asked, “Who is that?” Bin Wahad replied, “You know who I am!” Shabazz responded “WAHAD! We’ll deal with you later!” Bin Wahad countered with “You can deal with me now…” Knowing that Dhoruba Bin Wahad was there with information that would publicly expose Shabazz’s government affiliations that contradict his stance as a Nationalist and activist for Black liberation, Shabazz immediately ordered the NBPP members in attendance to “Get his b*tch ass out of here!” At that point the whole group was mobbed and violently attacked by at least 25 members of the audience.

As they defended themselves, the men were struck with chairs and other objects. Bin Wahad’s jaw was broken in three places, one of his associates was choked unconscious and others received head gashes that required staples.
DHORUBA BIN WAHAD

As of this release, Bin Wahad is undergoing a 6-hour surgery to reconstruct his jaw and the others have been treated and released. More details will follow as information is gathered.

↧

Book signing at Geoffrys Inner Circle: Zaza Ali and Professor Griff

August 14, 2015, 1:50 pm

≫ Next: Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Oni of Ife has joined the ancestors

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↧

Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Oni of Ife has joined the ancestors

August 14, 2015, 6:14 pm

≫ Next: Fidel Castro and Cuba as Pan African

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The Oni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, has passed away.

Head of an Oni From Wunmonije Compound, Ife C12th-15th

The monarch died at the age of 85 in a London hospital on Tuesday, Punch reports.
A source told the newspaper that Oba Sijuwade was flown out of the country from Ibadan about five days ago in an unconscious state.

“Kabiyesi was flown out of the country about five days ago in an air ambulance. He was unconscious; his situation was critical.

“As a matter of fact, some people have been weeping in the palace since the weekend because of his situation when he was flown out from Ibadan in that air ambulance,” he said.
Oba Sijuwade became the fiftieth traditional ruler or Ife in 1980.

Anterior

Ilé-Ifẹ̀ Ifè Oòyè
Ilé-Ifẹ̀
Coordinates: 7°28′N4°34′E
Government
• Ọọ̀ni	Olubuse II
• Local Government Chairman of Ife Central	Taiwo Olaiya
• Local Government Chairman of Ife North	Lanre Ogunyimika
• Local Government Chairman of Ife South	Timothy Fayemi
• Local Government Chairman of Ife East	Tajudeen Lawal

Ife (Yoruba: Ifè, also Ilé-Ifẹ̀) is an ancient Yoruba city in southwestern Nigeria. The city is located in the present day Osun State. Ife is about 218 kilometres (135 mi) northeast of Lagos.^[1]

History

Yoruba Copper mask for King Obalufon, Ife, Nigeria c. 1300 C.E.

Mythic origin of Ife, the holy city: Creation of the world

According to Yoruba mythology, Olodumare, the Supreme God, ordered Obatala to create the earth but on his way he found palm wine which he drank and became intoxicated. Therefore the younger brother of the latter, Oduduwa, took the three items of creation from him, climbed down from the heavens on a chain and threw a handful of earth on the primordial ocean, then put a cockerel on it so that it would scatter the earth, thus creating the land on which Ile Ife would be built.^[2] Oduduwa planted a palm nut in a hole in the newly formed land and from there sprang a great tree with sixteen branches, a symbolic representation of the clans of the early Ife city-state. The usurpation of creation by Oduduwa gave rise to the ever lasting conflict between him and his elder brother Obatala, which is still re-enacted in the modern era by the cult groups of the two clans during the Itapa New Year festival.^[3] On account of his creation of the world Oduduwa became the ancestor of the first divine king of the Yoruba, while Obatala is believed to have created the first Yoruba people out of clay. The meaning of the word "ife" in Yoruba is "expansion"; "Ile-Ife" is therefore in reference to the myth of origin "The Land of Expansion".

Origin of the regional states: Dispersal from the holy city, Ife

Oduduwa had sons, daughters, and a grandson who went on to found their own kingdoms and empires, namely Ila Orangun, Owu, Ketu, Sabe, Popo and Oyo. Oranmiyan, Oduduwa's last born, was one of his father's principal ministers and overseer of the nascent Edo empire after Oduduwa granted the plea of the Edo people for his governance. When Oranmiyan decided to go back to Ile Ife after a period of service in Benin, he left behind a child named Eweka that he had in the interim with an indigenous princess. The young boy went on to become the first legitimate ruler of the second Edo dynasty that has ruled what is now Benin from that day to this. Oranmiyan later went on to found the Oyo Empire that stretched at its height from the western banks of the river Niger to the Eastern banks of the river Volta. It would serve as one of the most powerful of Africa's medieval states prior to its collapse in the 19th century.

Traditional setting

The King (Ooni)

The Oòni (or king) of Ife claims direct descent from Oduduwa, and is counted first among the Yoruba kings. He is traditionally considered the 401st spirit (Orisha), the only one that speaks. In fact, the royal dynasty of Ife traces its origin back to the founding of the city more than two thousand years ago. The present ruler is Alayeluwa Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, styled His Imperial Majesty by his subjects. The Ooni ascended his throne in 1980.^[4] Following the formation of the Yoruba Orisha Congress in 1986, the Ooni acquired an international status the likes of which the holders of his title hadn't had since the city's colonisation by the British. Nationally he had always been prominent amongst the Federal Republic of Nigeria's company of royal Obas, being regarded as the chief priest and custodian of the holy city of all the Yorubas.^[5] In former times, the palace of the Oni of Ife was a structure built of authentic enameled bricks, decorated with artistic porcelain tiles and all sorts of ornaments. ^[6]

Cults for the spirits

Ife is well known as the city of 401 or 201 deities. It is said that every day of the year the traditional worshippers celebrate a festival of one of these deities. Often the festivals extend over more than one day and they involve both priestly activities in the palace and theatrical dramatisations in the rest of the kingdom. Historically the King only appeared in public during the annual Olojo festival; other important festivals here include the Itapa festival for Obatala and Obameri, the Edi festival for Moremi Ajasoro, and the Igare masqueraders.^[7]

Art history

Bronze Head from Ife, probably a king and dated around 1300 C.E., in the British Museum.

Kings and Gods were often depicted with large heads because the artists believed that the Ase was held in the head, the Ase being the inner power and energy of a person. Both historic figures of Ife and the offices associated with them are represented. One of the best documented among this is the early king Obalufon II who is said to have invented bronze casting and is honored in the form of a naturalistic copper life-size mask. ^[8]
The city was a settlement of substantial size between the 12th and 14th centuries, with houses featuring potsherd pavements. Ilé-Ifè is known worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures, which reached their peak of artistic expression between 1200 and 1400 A.D. In the period around 1300 C.E. the artists at Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone and copper alloy - copper, brass, and bronze many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia. ^[9] After this period, production declined as political and economic power shifted to the nearby kingdom of Benin which, like the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, developed into a major empire.
Bronze and terracotta art created by this civilization are significant examples of naturalism in pre-colonial African art and are distinguished by their variations in regalia, facial marking patterns, and body proportions. Ancient Ife also was famous for its glass beads which have been found at sites as far away as Mali, Mauritania, and Ghana.

The modern town

Today a mid-sized city, Ife is home to both the Obafemi Awolowo University and the Natural History Museum of Nigeria. Its people are of the Yoruba ethnic group, one of the largest ethnolinguistic groups in Africa and its diaspora. Ife has a local television station called NTA Ife, and is home to various businesses. It is also the trade center for a farming region where yams, cassava, grain, cacao, and tobacco are grown. Cotton is also produced, and is used to weave cloth. Hotels in Ilé-Ife include Cameron Hotel, Hotel Diganga Ife-Ibadan road, Mayfair Hotel, Obafemi Awolowo University Guest House etc. Ilé-Ife has a stadium with a capacity of 9,000 and a second division professional league football team.

Exhibition

A major exhibition entitled Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures of West Africa, displaying works of art found in Ife and the surrounding area, was held in the British Museum from 4 March to 4 July 2010.^[10]

Notes

"World: Africa Arrests after Nigerian cult killings."BBC. Monday July 12, 1999. Retrieved on October 31, 2011.

Bascom, Yoruba, p. 10; Stride, Ifeka: "Peoples and Empires", p. 290.

Olupona, 201 Gods, 144-173; Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 347-366; idem., "Preservation", 130-1.

Homepage of the Ooni of Ife

Olupona, 201 Gods, 94.

Cheikh Anta Diop's Precolonial Black Africa, pg. 203

Walsh, "Edi festival", 231-8; Bascom, "Olojo", 64-72; Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 358-366; Olupona, 201 Gods, 111-223.

Blier, Suzanne Preston. "Art in Ancient Ife Birthplace of the Yoruba"(PDF). Academia.edu. African Arts 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2015.

Blier, Suzanne Preston (2015). Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Politics, and Identity c. 1300. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107021662.

Britishmuseum.org

References

Olubunmi, A.O. The Rise and Fall of The Yoruba Race 10,000BC-1960AD, The 199 Publishing Palace ISBN 978-2457-38-8
---: On Ijesa Racial Purity, The 199 Publishing Palace ISBN 978-2458-17-1
Akinjogbin, I. A. (Hg.): The Cradle of a Race: Ife from the Beginning to 1980, Lagos 1992 (The book also has chapters on the present religious situation in the town).
Blier,Suzanne Preston. Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity c.1300, Cambridge University Press 2015. ISBN=978-1107021662.
Blier, Suzanne Preston. "Art in Ancient Ife Birthplace of the Yoruba" African Arts 2012 [1]
Bascom, William: The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, New York 1969 (The book mainly deals with Ife).
--- "The Olojo festival at Ife, 1937", in: A. Falassi (ed.), Time out of Time. Essays on the Festival, Albuquerque, 1987, 62-73.
Frobenius, Leo, The Voice of Africa, London 1913 (Frobenius stayed for nearly two months in Ife, in 1910-11).
Johnson, Samuel: History of the Yorubas, London 1921.
Lange, Dierk: "The dying and the rising God in the New Year Festival of Ife", in: Lange, Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa, Dettelbach 2004, pp. 343–376.
---: "Preservation of Canaanite creation culture in Ife", in: H.-P. Hahn and G. Spittler (eds.), Between Resistance and Expansion, Münster 2004, 125-158.
---: "Origin of the Yoruba and 'Lost Tribes of Israel'", Anthropos, 106, 2011, 579-595.
Ogunyemi, Yemi D. (Yemi D. Prince), The Oral Traditions in Ile-Ife, ISBN 978-1-933146-65-2, Academica Press, 2009, Palo Alto, USA.
---: The Aura of Yoruba Philosophy, Religion and Literature, ISBN 0-9652860-4-5, Diaspora Press of America, 2003, Boston, USA.
---: Introduction to Yoruba Philosophy, Religion and Literature, ISBN 1-890157-14-7, Athelia Henrietta Press, 1998, New York, USA.
---: The Covenant of the Earth--Yoruba Religious & Philosophical Narratives, ISBN 1-890157-15-5, Athelia Henrietta Press, 1998, New York, USA.
Olupona, Jacob K.: City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space and Imagination, Berkeley 2011.
Stride, G.T. and C. Ifeka: "Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History 1000 - 1800", New York 1971.
Walsh, M.J., "The Edi festival at Ile Ife", African affairs, 47 (1948), 231-8.
Willett, Frank: Ife in the History of West African Sculpture, London 1967 (The book also deals with some oral traditions of Ile-Ife).
Wyndham, John: "The creation", Man, 19 (1919), 107-8.

↧

Fidel Castro and Cuba as Pan African

August 14, 2015, 6:42 pm

≫ Next: Black Lives Matter and Political Correctness in Seattle WA

≪ Previous: Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Oni of Ife has joined the ancestors

Left to right: Fidel Castro with Malcolm X

d

Did America support Malcolm X? Did America support Nelson Mandela and the ANC? No, no, no, but Fidel and the Cuban did. Today the Great Shaitan returns to Cuba, raising the flag of imperialism and white supremacy. Yankee/Gringo go home!

↧

Black Lives Matter and Political Correctness in Seattle WA

August 14, 2015, 7:06 pm

≫ Next: Oba of Yoruba African Village, Sheldon, South Carolina, requests your presence

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Black lives trump “politeness”:

The disruption of a Bernie Sanders speech in Seattle

There has been a great deal of heated debate on social media and elsewhere about Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists shutting down a Bernie Sanders speech in Seattle on August 8. As attendees at this rally celebrating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, we admire the courage of the two young Black women who took over the stage to demand that Sanders, and other candidates for U.S. president, address the epidemic of violence and oppression faced by black communities across the nation.

The real question is why Bernie Sanders did not try to engage with them. Marissa Johnson and Mara Willaford boldly grabbed the microphone to point out that “progressive Seattle” is riddled with problems of police abuse, incarceration of youth of color, gentrification, disproportionate suspension of Black schoolchildren, and other racial justice issues. And they demanded Sanders address racism. This is not the first time these issues have been raised to Sanders. At a Netroots Nation conference in July, Black women called on him to put forward a racial justice agenda to dismantle structural racism in the U.S.

At the Seattle event Sanders made no attempt to speak with the BLM activists, have a dialogue, or address the crowd on this burning issue of our times. If he’d desired, surely one of the rally organizers could have walked a mic over to him. Instead, he stood aside and shook his head, and then walked off the stage without speaking.

Sanders’ reputation as a progressive should in no way give him a pass on racial justice issues. He voted for Bill Clinton’s Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which props up the racist prison-industrial complex. He voted to extradite Assata Shakur, an African American freedom fighter who is living in exile in Cuba. And his refusal to denounce Israel’s war against Palestinians gives tacit consent to some of the most racist repression on the planet. (See the Freedom Socialist Party statement, distributed at the Sanders rally, that critiques his run to be Democratic presidential nominee: www.socialism.com.)

Some say that the BLM protestors went too far by interrupting the event. That it was rude. But after hundreds of years of continuous racist violence in the “land of the free”, it is ridiculous to expect anti-racist protestors to follow all Seattle protocols on politeness. Especially when they see the violence only escalating. The murder of Black men continues unabated and, in July alone, five Black women died in police custody.

Besides, politeness was in short supply when many in the largely white audience reacted to the BLM action with intense hostility. Some shouted racist and sexist invectives like “tase them,” “get these Black bitches off the stage,” and “call CPS” (Child Protective Services). It was chilling.

Members and supporters of Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party, and some others in the crowd, began loudly chanting to support the Black Lives Matter protesters. We debated those around us. When someone said they could not understand why the BLM activists were taking over, one of our contingent shot back, “Have you had a family member arrested or killed by the police?” The answer was no, and a discussion began on why the fight for racial equality can’t wait.

We could feel the majority of the rally crowd grow tense when the BLM protestors leveled charges of white supremacist liberalism. We see a difference between liberals and those with an explicitly racist ideology. But racism is racism. At times some of the viciously hostile responses sounded like a KKK rally. That's not so surprising in a country built on the foundations of genocide and slavery, where racism, which is essential to keeping the profit system alive, permeates everyday life. But it was downright hypocritical at a social justice event.

It is imperative that we tackle head-on the racism and sexism that reared its head in Seattle’s progressive movement. And that we focus on the critical issues the BLM activists raised and Sanders skirted.

For inspiration, let us remember that the history of the civil rights movement includes courageous multi-racial organizers who were not polite. Folks of all colors risked their lives in the effort. We know that white folks committed to social change can channel their inner John Brown, a white man who collaborated with Harriet Tubman to free slaves and gave his life trying to spark an armed slave rebellion.

The “ill-mannered” disruption of the rally sparked a new national discussion about racism. It’s time for everyone to link arms with the BLM movement in the fight for radical change now.

Steve Hoffman, Seattle Freedom Socialist Party
Anne Slater, Seattle Radical Women

Radical Women
RWSeattle@mindspring.com• 206-722-6057
www.RadicalWomen.org

Freedom Socialist Party
fspseattle@mindspring.com• 206-722-2453
www.socialism.com

Freedom Socialist Party statement
Bernie Sanders’ Bid for President: What Would Eugene Debs Think?

It’s clear why fed-up voters are attracted to Bernie Sanders. He rails against the billionaires and calls for a U.S. political revolution. Who doesn’t want to end the rule of banksters and CEOs? Who doesn’t want to stop the corporate harvesting of all things profitable at the expense of people and the planet? Who doesn’t want to hear the needs of working people promoted for a change?

Sanders’ self-professed hero is U.S. revolutionary socialist Eugene V. Debs. As a Socialist Party candidate, Debs ran for president five times in the early 1900s, twice gaining over 900,000 votes. But Debs understood that workers and the poor need a party independent of the duopoly of power. In a 1904 speech, he said:

The Republican and Democratic parties … are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principle.

With either of these parties in power one thing is always certain and that is that the capitalist class is in the saddle and the working class under the saddle.

… The ignorant workingman who supports either of these parties forges his own fetters and is the unconscious author of his own misery.

In contrast, Sanders is running as a Democrat; he has chosen to hitch his wagon to the overlords in the saddle. He has promised to support whoever wins the Democratic primary. In Congress, he votes with the Democrats 98 percent of the time, and he consistently supports their presidential candidates.

His function in this election is the same as left-identified Democratic presidential contenders like Jesse Jackson, Dennis Kucinich, and others before him. It is to bleed off protest against the two-party chokehold over U.S. politics and to make sure that unionists and progressives once again vote — against their own interests — for a Democrat acceptable to big business.

And what about Sanders’ actual record? It’s seriously at odds with his image.

Wall Street — Sanders promises to reform Wall Street. But this can’t be done through tweaks such as taxing certain financial transactions, as Sanders proposes. Given the devastating power they wield over people’s lives, the banks need to be nationalized under workers’ control! Also, Sanders aims his anti-corporate fury almost entirely against Republicans, while giving a pass to Democratic friends of finance capital.

War — Sanders accepts the U.S. role as World Cop. In Congress, he has voted to fund nearly every imperialist military action by the U.S., from Iraq and Somalia to Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. He refuses to denounce Israel’s war on Palestinians, and endorsed the sanctions that killed over a million Iraqi civilians.

Labor — Sanders’ version of defending U.S. workers is of the jingoistic, “America First” variety. He points to immigrants and foreign workers as the source of job loss, rather than the bosses’ policies of speedup, automation, and the global “race to the bottom.” But, internationally, an injury to one truly is an injury to all! Even when it comes to U.S. workers, Sanders hasn’t stepped up to the plate when it counts. Earlier this year, he didn’t resist when the Democratic governor of Vermont, his ally, pushed through a budget that meant cutting hundreds of union jobs.

Civil rights — The Vermont senator has supported racist federal legislation, like Bill Clinton’s Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which props up the prison-industrial complex. He has not championed the Black Lives Matter movement or other groups aimed at ending police murders and the criminalization of youth of color.

In his campaign speeches, this supposed socialist generally has refused to pinpoint capitalism as the problem and socialism as the solution. While more and more voters are identifying their affiliation as “independent,” Sanders is headed in the opposite direction.

He excels at rousing populist oratory, but considers Hillary Clinton, warmonger of U.S. foreign policy, his “good friend.” Sanders is the man for the job for the beleaguered Democratic Party in these times of growing anger and dissent. Not as president, mind you, but as the latest in a series of perennial false hopes for a kinder, gentler party — and social system.

On the socialist Left, there are groups, like the Socialist Alternative of Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, who give Sanders direct or indirect support, ignoring or downplaying the ugly parts of his record and wishing away his longtime collusion with the Democratic Party. This is no way to build a movement for lasting fundamental change.

What would be productive is left cooperation rather than competition on the electoral battlefield. By joining forces, it would be much more possible to give people opportunities to vote for bold, honest, radical opponents of the profit system and its ravages at home and abroad.

A big part of any joint anti-capitalist effort would have to be challenging the tangle of state and federal laws that keep Left and independent labor candidates off the ballot. And a possible outcome of such an effort could be the launch of a new national party to defend working people and the oppressed. The Freedom Socialist Party is for a national conference that could discuss these ideas and get something moving. And the sooner the better! U.S. voters need relief!

↧

Oba of Yoruba African Village, Sheldon, South Carolina, requests your presence

August 15, 2015, 5:09 am

≫ Next: Prez candidate Dr. Ben Carson says Planned Parenthood is for Black Population Control

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↧

Prez candidate Dr. Ben Carson says Planned Parenthood is for Black Population Control

August 15, 2015, 7:42 pm

≫ Next: I just saw Straight Outta Compton, here's what I thought

≪ Previous: Oba of Yoruba African Village, Sheldon, South Carolina, requests your presence

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks at the National Sheriffs’ Association presidential forum, Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Planned Parenthood Clinics Are Set Up To Control The Black Population Says Dr. Ben Carson

By Nigel Boys
In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” 63-year-old retired neurosurgeon and GOP presidential candidate, Ben Carson, said that Planned Parenthood sets up abortions clinics in black neighborhoods to “control that population.”

Tying the nation’s leading provider of abortions to eugenics, then eugenics to Hillary Clinton, the author and political pundit who retired from Johns Hopkins hospital told Cavuto, “Well, maybe I’m not objective when it comes to Planned Parenthood.”

The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, had a history of eugenics and racist policies and he knew all about her deliberate attempts to curb the black population, said Carson. “And one of the reasons you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find ways to control that population,” he added.

The Hill reports that the Detroit, Michigan native also disputed claims that de-funding Planned Parenthood would harm women’s healthcare.

“Well, certainly women’s health is an important issue,” the White House hopeful in the upcoming 2016 election said. “There are a lot of women’s health organizations that don’t engage in abortion, by the way, so by no means is it a do-or-die situation.”

“I believe that abortion and paying for abortion with federal funding when so many people are against it is just not the right thing to do,” Carson said. Pointing out that Clinton says she admires Sanger, he added people should read about Sanger’s history. “Look up and see what many people in Nazi Germany thought about her, a great person.”

In an appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” Carson confirmed that he believes Planned Parenthood concentrates its clinics in black neighborhoods. The number one cause of death for black people is abortion, he told guest host Eric Bolling, according to Fox News.
Fetus In Womb Unborn-baby.jpg

After the release of a series of undercover videos, allegedly demonstrating how Planned Parenthood is in the business of selling fetal body parts, the organization has come under fierce scrutiny and demands to cease its federal funding. Carson believes that the important questions to be asked should be: “Why is that happening?” and “What can be done to alleviate the situation?”

“One of the ways they’re able to perpetrate the deceit is because people are not informed,” Carson said on the show. “The more people are informed, the less likely these kinds of things [are].”
Carson also told Cavuto that he was willing to have a discussion about when life begins, when he was asked about his views on de-funding Planned Parenthood in the light of the undercover videos.
“Certainly once the heart starts beating. Certainly at that point,” Carson said. “If we are willing to open up the discussion, both sides, I think we can come to accommodation.”

According to the National Review, in her 1922 book “The Pilot of Civilization,” Sanger wrote: “The lack of balance between the birth-rate of the “unfit” and the “fit” [is] admittedly the greatest present menace to the civilization…”

“The example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken, should not be held up for emulation to the mentally and physically fit, and therefore less fertile, parents of the educated and well-to-do classes,” Sanger continued. “On the contrary, the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”

Life Dynamics found in a 2011 study of the zip codes of every abortion or abortion-referral facility in the U.S., that the majority of these facilities were overwhelmingly located in zip codes with minority populations well above the state average. The pro-life organization reported that out of 94 facilities in Texas, 72 of those were located in zip codes with disproportionate black and/or Hispanic populations.
The study’s author noted, “There is not one state in the union without population control centers located in ZIP codes with higher percentages of blacks and/or Hispanics than the state’s overall percentage,” according to the National Review.

Fetus by Marvin X

Mama, please don't kill me
don't you see
I got your eyes
Mama, please don't kill me
don't you see
I got my daddy's hands, head feet
Mama, please don't flush me down the toilet
I might be a prophet
come to save the world
Mama, please
don't kill me.
--Marvin X

from Liberation Poems for North American Africans, Marvin X, Al Kitab Sudan Press (Black Bird Press), 1983.

The Truth About MARGARET SANGER
(This article first appeared in the January 20, 1992 edition of Citizen magazine)
How Planned Parenthood Duped America

At a March 1925 international birth control gathering in New York City, a speaker warned of the menace posed by the "black" and "yellow" peril. The man was not a Nazi or Klansman; he was Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, a member of Margaret Sanger's American Birth Control League (ABCL), which along with other groups eventually became known as Planned Parenthood.

Margaret Sanger. This portrait captures her complexity.

Margaret Sanger. This portrait captures her complexity.

Sanger's other colleagues included avowed and sophisticated racists. One, Lothrop Stoddard, was a Harvard graduate and the author of The Rising Tide of Color against
White Supremacy.

The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy

Stoddard was something of a Nazi enthusiast who described the eugenic practices of the Third Reich as "scientific" and "humanitarian." And Dr. Harry Laughlin, another Sanger associate and board member for her group, spoke of purifying America's human "breeding stock" and purging America's "bad strains." These "strains" included the "shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of antisocial whites of the South."

Not to be outdone by her followers, Margaret Sanger spoke of sterilizing those she designated as "unfit," a plan she said would be the "salvation of American civilization.: And she also spoke of those who were "irresponsible and reckless," among whom she included those " whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers." She further contended that "there is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped." That many Americans of African origin constituted a segment of Sanger considered "unfit" cannot be easily refuted.

While Planned Parenthood's current apologists try to place some distance between the eugenics and birth control movements, history definitively says otherwise. The eugenic theme figured prominently in the Birth Control Review, which Sanger founded in 1917. She published such articles as "Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics" (June 1920), "The Eugenic Conscience" (February 1921), "The purpose of Eugenics" (December 1924), "Birth Control and Positive Eugenics" (July 1925), "Birth Control: The True Eugenics" (August 1928), and many others.

These eugenic and racial origins are hardly what most people associate with the modern Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), which gave its Margaret Sanger award to the late Dr. Martin Luther King in 1966, and whose current president, Faye Wattleton, is black, a former nurse, and attractive.

Though once a social pariah group, routinely castigated by religious and government leaders, the PPFA is now an established, high-profile, well-funded organization with ample organizational and ideological support in high places of American society and government. Its statistics are accepted by major media and public health officials as "gospel"; its full-page ads appear in major newspapers; its spokespeople are called upon to give authoritative analyses of what America's family policies should be and to prescribe official answers that congressmen, state legislator and Supreme Court justiices all accept as "social orthodoxy."

Blaming Families

Sanger's obsession with eugenics can be traced back to her own family. One of 11 children, she wrote in the autobiographical book, My Fight for Birth Control, that "I associated poverty, toil, unemployment, drunkenness, cruelty, quarreling, fighting, debts, jails with large families." Just as important was the impression in her childhood of an inferior family status, exacerbated by the iconoclastic, "free-thinking" views of her father, whose "anti-Catholic attitudes did not make for his popularity" in a predominantly Irish community.

The fact that the wealthy families in her hometown of Corning, N.Y., had relatively few children, Sanger took as prima facie evidence of the impoverishing effect of larger families. The personal impact of this belief was heightened 1899, at the age of 48. Sanger was convinced that the "ordeals of motherhood" had caused the death of her mother. The lingering consumption (tuberculosis) that took her mother's life visited Sanger at the birth of her own first child on Nov. 18, 1905. The diagnosis forced her to seek refuge in the Adirondacks to strengthen her for the impending birth. Despite the precautions, the birth of baby Grant was "agonizing," the mere memory of which Sanger described as "mental torture" more than 25 years later. She once described the experience as a factor "to be reckoned with" in her zealous campaign for birth control.

From the beginning, Sanger advocacy of sex education reflected her interest in population control and birth prevention among the "unfit." Her first handbook, published for adolescents in 1915 and entitled, What Every Boy and Girl Should Know, featured a jarring afterword:

It is a vicious cycle; ignorance breeds poverty and poverty breeds ignorance. There is only one cure for both, and that is to stoop breeding these things. Stop bringing to birth children whose inheritance cannot be one of health or intelligence. Stop bringing into the world children whose parents cannot provide for them.

To Sanger, the ebbing away of moral and religious codes over sexual conduct was a natural consequence of the worthlessness of such codes in the individual's search for self-fulfillment. "Instead of laying down hard and fast rules of sexual conduct," Sanger wrote in her 1922 book Pivot of Civilization, "sex can be rendered effective and valuable only as it meets and satisfies the interests and demands of the pupil himself." Her attitude is appropriately described as libertarianism, but sex knowledge was not the same as individual liberty, as her writings on procreation emphasized.

The second edition of Sanger's life story, An Autobiography, appeared in 1938. There Sanger described her first cross-country lecture tour in 1916. Her standard speech asserted seven conditions of life that "mandated" the use of birth control: the third was "when parents, though normal, had subnormal children"; the fourth, "when husband and wife were adolescent"; the fifth, "when the earning capacity of the father was inadequate." No right existed to exercise sex knowledge to advance procreation. Sanger described the fact that "anyone, no matter how ignorant, how diseased mentally or physically, how lacking in all knowledge of children, seemed to consider he or she had the right to become a parent."

Religious Bigotry

In the 1910's and 1920's, the entire social order–religion, law, politics, medicine, and the media–was arrayed against the idea and practice of birth control. This opposition began in 1873 when an overwhelmingly Protestant Congress passed, and a Protestant president signed into law, a bill that became known as the Comstock Law, named after its main proponent, Anthony Comstock. The U.S. Congress classified obscene writing, along with drugs, and devices and articles that prevented conception or caused abortion, under the same net of criminality and forbade their importation or mailing.

Sanger set out to have such legislation abolished or amended. Her initial efforts were directed at the Congress with the opening of a Washington, D.C., office of her American Birth Control League in 1926. Sanger wanted to amend section 211 of the U.S. criminal code to allow the interstate shipment and mailing of contraceptives among physicians, druggists and drug manufacturers.

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Black Arts Movement Dream and Wishlist

Donald Trump’s Politically Correct Bullies

July 10, 2015

Contents

Early life and education

Career

Imprisonment

Other positions

Awards

Conversation with Saddam's half-brother

His reaction - Saddam's Trial

2014 Prime Minister To-Be

References

Poems for Palestine, Egypt, Syria by Marvin X and Mohja Kahf

PALESTINE by Marvin X (Imam Maalik El Muhajir)

After Friday Prayers

Two Poems for the People of Syria

Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine - Summer 2015Black Arts Movement Poet Marvin X at rally for Gaza, Seattle WA

Instructions

PALESTINE by Marvin X

Man Kills Ex-Wife, Her New Husband and Five Children in Their Home

Amnesty International backs worldwide decriminalisation of prostitution

"It is hypocritical for those who endorse same sex marriage to oppose prostitution between consenting adults. And as per marriage, a friend's wife told me, 'I know I'm just a ho' in the disguise of a wife!'"--Marvin X

Opponents claim the policy 'flies in the face of Amnesty's historical reputation'

Marvin X calls for all Men to March who love ho's and multiple wives

Hugo Pinell, a member of the infamous 'San Quentin Six,' was killed on Wednesday during a prison riot at California State Prison-Sacramento, authorities say.

Bottom row, left to right: Johnny Spain, David Johnson, Willie Tate; top row, left to right: Fleeta Drumgo, Luis Talamantez and Hugo Pinell

PALESTINE by Marvin X (El Muhajir)

Two Poems for the People of Syria

Contents

History

Mythic origin of Ife, the holy city: Creation of the world

Origin of the regional states: Dispersal from the holy city, Ife

Traditional setting

The King (Ooni)

Cults for the spirits

Art history

The modern town

Exhibition

See also

Notes

References

Black lives trump “politeness”:

The disruption of a Bernie Sanders speech in Seattle

Planned Parenthood Clinics Are Set Up To Control The Black Population Says Dr. Ben Carson

Fetus by Marvin X

Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine - Summer 2015
Black Arts Movement Poet Marvin X at rally for Gaza, Seattle WA