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RESOLUTIONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM PAN AFRICAN CONGRESS


The United kingdom Pan African Congress was held from 15th August to 17th August 1998. It was a celebration of the 111th birthday of The Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. This comprised two days of discussion and debate around the question WHAT IS TO BE DONE to solve the problems we have in Britain and internationally, and the Marcus Garvey 111th Birthday Children's Festival. These were held at the South Place Ethical Society's, Conway Hall, Holborn, London WC1.

The Congress adopted Resolutions on the following:

1. UNBAN KWAME NKRUMAH'S CONVENTION PEOPLES PARTY.

The Congress called on the Rawlins Government in Ghana to unban Kwame Nkrumah's Convention Peoples Party. Congress noted that the CPP was banned after the foreign inspired coup which overthrew Nkrumah's Government in 1966 and the ban has never been lifted.

2. MAKING MARCUS GARVEY'S BIRTHDAY AN AFRICAN HOLIDAY.

Congress called on Africans everywhere, both on the continent and off the continent, to agitate and demand that their governments make Marcus Garvey's Birthday, the seventeenth day of August every year, a National Holiday. Congress called on all AFRICAN Governments and those in the Caribbean, to recognise the monumental contribution Marcus Garvey has made towards African Unity and liberation, and make Marcus Garvey's Birthday a National Holiday.

3. THE AFRICAN PASSPORT

Congress called on the African masses to agitate and demand that their governments work towards the creation of the African Passport so that African people, whether they are born on the Continent or in the Diaspora, can travel freely, throughout the length and breadth of Africa, with the right to live, work and die anywhere in Africa that they choose. Congress called on African Governments to take positive steps towards the creation of the African Passport.

4. LIFTING THE BANS ON MlNISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN and KWAME TURE

Despite reservations about Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam's involvement with the oppresssive neocolonialist Rawlins regime in Ghana, the hated, tyranical Abacha regime in Nigeria and the oppressive Islamic regime in Sudan, Congress called on the British Home Secretary Jack Straw to stop pandering to Zionists, racists, white supremacists and white collar terrorists and LIFT THE BANS ON FARRAKHAN and on KWAME TURE.

5. GLOBAL PAN AFRICAN CONGRESS, SEPTEMBER 2000.

Congress supported the call for a Global Pan African Congress in September 2,000, adopted the Draft Declaration of Principles and elected Lester Lewis (Prince Ntum ba Azah), the Convenor of the United Kingdom Pan African Congress, as its representative to serve on the Committee to organise the Global Pan African Congress.

6. HUMAN RIGHTS IN GHANA.

Congress re-affirmed its commitment to freedom of conscience and freedom of expression; expressed its solidarity with and support for imprisoned Ghanian Journalists, Kweku Baako Jnr., A.R. Harruna Attah and Ato Sam; and called on Africans and friends of Africa to join the struggle against neo-colonial tyrants and their imperialist masters.

The Congress was attended by Koro Sallah, a member of The Movement For Justice in Africa (Gambia Section).

Issued by: Lester Lewis Convenor, UKPAC I 9th August 1998.

For further information Contact:

ORGANISING COMMITTEE
UNITED KINGDOM PAN AFRICAN CONGRESS 98
18 stoke Newington Road, London N16 7XN
TeL: 44171 923 1033 Fax: +44171 924 0934

http://www.globalafrica.com/UKPACRes.htm

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PAN AFRICANS ON THE RISE AGAIN

The past year was very successful for the Pan African idea. Pan Africanism was being gradually pushed off the African agenda since United States imperialism organised the military coup de tat which overthrew of Kwame Nkrumah in 1966.Nkrumah’s Convention Peoples Party was rent asunder. It was split into a myriad of different factions, each claiming the Nkrumahist mantle.

Similarly, the American Central intelligence Agency orchestrated a wide ranging campaign to disrupt the work of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa). The PAC was and still is the torch bearer of Pan Africanism in Southern Africa. The PAC went from having majority support among Africans after it organised the anti-pass law campaign. It was this campaign which resulted in the Sharpville massacre in 1960. By the 1990s, the PAC enjoyed the electoral support of less than five per cent of the population.

All kinds of charlatans, hicksters, hustlers, careerists and opportunists proclaimed themselves to be Pan African leaders. One of these self proclaimed new breed leaders is Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. He formed a military alliance with United States imperialism, the bitter enemy of Pan Africanism, Africa and Africans. He set up a bogus Pan African Movement which promotes globalisation, the new policy by which the USA will impose economic control of African economies. While Europe was engaged in a war to stop the development of a Pan African union, it was busy developing an all embracing European union.

Not withstanding these setbacks, Pan Africanism remains the most popular political philosophy on the continent. This was reflected in a poll carried out by BBC Africa Service. Africans voted Kwame Nkrumah Man of the millennium.

In his book Consciencism, Nkrumah tell us that:

"the principles which animate capitalism are in conflict with the socialist egalitarianism of traditional African society."
The struggles of the African masses manifested itself in many different ways.

The Ogoni and peoples of the Delta region of Nigeria overcame the fear of death itself and started fighting the military bandits Babangida and Abacha. The National Patriotic Party of Liberia scored an impressive military victory against neo-colonialist forces and set out to implement a policy of Africa for Africans. For this, Liberia is now under attack from Britain and the USA aimed at disrupting Liberian economic progress.

At the same time, Yoweri Museveni , said to be a Western proxy by the British newspaper Daily Telegraph of 20 March 2000 was defeated in his attempt to build a Tutsi Hema Empire. Thus, the US inspired proxy war in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being defeated. The restoration of land to its rightful owners in Zimbabwe and the military successes of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone are other positive factors.

The RUF, with its policy of arms, power and wealth to the people has struck terror into the hearts of Euro-American imperialism. Liberia is out of their control. If Sierra Leone also comes out of their control, this will signal the demise of European economic and social control in Africa. Hence the demonisation of the RUF and its leader Foday Sankoh. Muamar al Ghadafi's call for the immediate setting up of an African Union meant that Pan Africanism was once again at the centre of the African political agenda.

The decision of the special OAU conference held at Sirte to set up a Pan African Union by year 2001 was welcome by advocates of Pan Africanism. The main question left unanswered was what kind of African Union.
What would be the economic and social content of this African Union. This was resolved at the Centenary Pan African conference which called for a democratic, egalitarian, socialist Pan African Union ruled by African culture, in which Africa produces what it consumes and consumes what it produces.

This is also the policy of the PAC.
The first major success of the past year was the seventh national Congress of the PAC. Dr. Stanley Mogoba, the PAC President made a passionate call for the PAC to take Pan Africanism back to the people. He launched a nationwide campaign calling for the release of PAC political prisoners and to rebuild the PAC as the alternative to the ANC. Taking Pan Africanism back to the people brought immediate electoral gains in local government elections. The PAC more than doubled its vote The number of Pan African elected local government Councilors rose from twenty seven to ninety five. The local government campaign was organised by Bob Brown, the Director of the Kwame Ture Work Study Institute ad Library of Conakry, Guinea
(email: paroots02@yahoo.com).

The second major event was the celebrations of one hundred years of organised Pan Africanism. This was the commemoration of the Pan African Conference organ ised by Trinidadian born Henry Sylvester Williams. This conference was held in London in July 1900. Sister President Nzinga Ratibisha brought the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilisations (USA) to London to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the 1900 Pan African Conference.

ASCAC members also participated in the Centenary Pan African Conference organised by Pan Africanists in London. A book about this CPAC entitled How Africans Can Regain Their Lost Power is due to be published in South Africa shortly.

An impressive list of families of former Pan African leaders participated in this historical event. George James Christian, a delegate at the 1900 Pan African Conference was represented by his grand daughters - writer Margaret Busby and BBC TV News Reader Moira Stuart. Of the delegates to the 1945 Manchester Congress, Ernest Mckenzie-Mavinga was represented by his daughter Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga. George Padmore was represented by his seventy four years old daughter Blyden Nurse-Cowart and grand daughter Lyndia Blyden Randall. Kwame Nkrumah was represented by his daughter Samia Nkrumah. Kwame Ture was represented by his sister Najib Malik. Two Caribbean governments, Bermuda and Dominica were represented at the Congress. Koro Sallah of the Movement For Justice in Africa (Gambia) paid tribute to all Pan Africanists, past, present and future.

Dr. Motsoko Pheko, the Deputy President of the PAC and a member of the South African Parliament gave a brilliant, sparkling and exhilarating keynote address entitled. In a series of policy proposals, he said that Africa must, stop exporting their raw materials; maximise the study of science and technology in all African institutions of learning; build military capacity to defend African interests; increase the African population; strengthen the Pan African Movement; reject globalisation as an option for African economic development; and unite into a giant, monolithic Pan African Union.

Another major event was the Mathaba Conference held at Sirte, Libya in August. Many of the twenty one countries that have signed up for the African Union were represented at the Mathaba. Attendees include Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Museveni of Uganda, Oumar Konare of Mali, Abdoulai Wade of Senegal, Blaize Compoare of Burkina Fasso, Yaya Jama of Gambia, Komba Yala of Guinea Bissau, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Ghadafi of Libya.

President Abdoulai Wade struck a note of cordiality when he said that Senegal was a province of Africa, that there must be a campaign among Africans for the African Union, not just Generals with no followers. He was in favour of an elected African Parliament and not a nominated Parliament as advocated by some others. He pledged to organise a conference of five hundred African intellectuals in Dakar to determine what shoud happen in the coming African Union.

In looking at the Africa to come, Africans must examine what is happening in Liberia. Chief Cyril Allen outlined this at the Great Pan African Rally held in London in November. Following the end of the civil war, which was a revolt against corruption and neo-colonial oppression. It was prolonged by the intervention of Nigerian Military Bandit Ibrahim Babangida on behalf of United States imperialism. President Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Party won an overwhelming majority at the polls. They immediately began to dismantle the neo-colonial state.

They took control of major sectors of the Liberian economy that were in the hands of USA predator companies. They took control of the massive rubber plantation for which Firestone paid only $1.00 per year. Industrial structures are now being built to process the rubber and manufacture rubber products in Liberia. This will bring employment, economic and social benefits to the long suffering people of Liberia.

They also took iron ore mining out of the hands of Bethel Steel, another USA predator company. Now, the USA and Britain have embarked on a campaign of economic warfare against Liberia. This is dressed up as sanctions for Liberia’s alleged involvement in the civil war in Sierra Leone. Africans must not allow Britain to recolonise Sierra Leone. British troops should be withdrawn from Liberia to stop them from killing Africans again. After all, Britain has killed millions of Africans over the centuries for Britain's economic benefit.

The coming African Union must implement a policy of No Foreign Troops on African soil.

Pan Africanists can take heart from the revolution being carried out in Venezuela by President Hugo Chavez, elected by seventy three per cent of the people in Presidential elections. Venezuela was the first country to implement a structural adjustment programme. This was imposed on them by the USA through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This caused massive disruption of the Venezuelan economy and led to mass unemployment and wide spread poverty. Outraged progressive elements in the military staged two attempted military coups. The first led by Chavez when he was a Colonel in the Venezuelan army. For this, he spent two years in prison.

As President, Chavez has rejected globalisation. He points out that capitalism or liberalism as it is now called, causes poverty. His social and economic revolution is aimed at lifting the mass of the Venezuelan population out of poverty and degradation. Chavez has embarked on a programme of building hospitals, schools, roads and improving social structures. He has laid special emphasis on the development of the agricultural sector so that Venezuela can feed itself rather than relying on American imported food products. After the floods of 1999 which brought death and devastation in its wake, Chavez has set aside vast sums for the development of housing to meet the needs of he people.

Approximately forty per cent of the Venezuealan population are Africans.

As Mao Tsetung said, "imperialism is a paper tiger." Poor peoples and nations are once more on the march against foreign domination now dressed up as globalisation; and against local oppression. Local collaborators and agents of foreign capital are finding it increasingly difficult to continue to rule in the same old way. Nigeria is an excellent case study.

When the military bandit Ibrahim Babangida ruled Nigeria, he commissioned a study to find out what Nigerians wanted. Babangida buried the report and instead looted Nigeria's wealth. He and his sidekick Sani Abacha are probably two of the biggest thieves in history. During the criminal reign of Abacha, billions of dollars looted from Nigeria were deposited in banks in London. British governments, both Labour and Conservative were aware of this. They kept quiet since it was to their economic benefit. Pan Africanists must take the lead in implementing the decision of the Centenary Pan African Conference. This calls on Pan Africanists and Africans every where to intensify the struggle for Pan Africanism. Having been pushed back for over thirty years and now coming from the depths of despair, Pan Africanism is on the rise again. Provided that Pan Africanists work hard and work relentlessly, in future, the only way we can go is up.

Lester Lewis is a London based Pan Africanist. He is a writer and a historian of the Diopian school.
http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/panafricanrise.htm

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THE AFRICAN UNION, IRAQ AND THE NEW COLONIALISM

Lester Lewis (GBN Contributor)
September 09, 2002

As The African Union must be the Rock on which
The back of the new Colonialism is Broken.

The 2800 people killed in the attack on the World trade Centre in New York in September 2001 pales into insignificance when compared to the 4,500,000 Africans killed in the American proxy war waged against the Democratic Republic of Congo.

All Africans who are preparing to commemorate the attack on America must ask themselves must ask themselves the question, "Whey aren't we commemorating the victims of the SILENT GENOCIDE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO?"

Is it that the lives of Americans are more precious than the lives of Africans? All lives equally precious. Why isn't the American proxy war waged against the people of the DRC being condemned? Africans must roundly condemn the American proxy war waged against the DRC by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi; and must demand that the United States pay compensation to the victims of the SILENT GENOCIDE IN THE DRC.

The American plan to establish, by force of arms, a Tutsi Hema Empire vassal state as part of the New Colonialism, was defeated by the combined military might of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

In the New colonial war waged against Yugoslavia, Britain and America committed Crimes Against Humanity, bombing, hospitals, bridges, factories, power stations, T.V and radio stations, water supplies etc. It is the United States which effectively rules the New Colonial state of Kosovo created out of the racist war against Serbia.

In the New Colonial Afghanistan, it is American troops who guard Hamad Kharazi, the puppet President imposed on Afghanistan through American military power. But as I have shown elsewhere (See Letter to an African Woman: The Consequences of the Attack on America), American power is on the decline and its power would decline at an increasing rate, the more it wages unjust wars against small states, nations and their peoples.

Talk of a regime change in Iraq shows the naked face of this New Colonialist imperialism, an imperialism that is openly racist, openly anti-Islamic and openly anti-African. The United states has abrogated to itself the right to impose a New Colonial puppet regime on Iraq in opposition to the majority of nations and peoples of the world. To paraphrase the Saudi Arabian foreign Minister, what makes United States imperialism think it knows what is better for the Iraqi people than the Iraqi people themselves.

The suggestion that Iraq is any kind of threat to the United states or Britain is belied by the 32 attacks on Iraq by US and British war planes over the past month. Iraq lacks the necessary air defences to combat these attacks. But with the myth of American invincibility shattered for ever, America seeks to demonstrate its military might in a futile attempt to intimidate the peoples of the world.

So after Iraq, which country would be the next target for the new colonial treatment. Which other regimes would America seek to change. Would it be the Mugabe Government in Zimbabwe because Mugabe is restoring theland to its rightful owners and restoring African Culture? Would it be Sam Nujoma's Government in Namibia because Nujoma is following in Mugabe's footsteps. Would it be Yahya Jammeh's Government in Gambia because Jammeh is taking an anti-imperialist line?

It certainly will not be the Chavez Government in Venezuela. United States imperialism was roundly defeated by the Venezuelan masses when they restored Chavez to power after an American orchestrated coup had removed him from power. This shows to the whole world that United States imperialism is not omnipotent. It is the organised masses every where who are omnipotent.

It is not good enough for the South African government to say that "a US attack on Iraq would be unacceptable." The African Union must demonstrate its unacceptability if it is to be taken seriously. The African Union must adopt a common stance that will make the US think thrice. The African Union must bethe rock on which the back of the New Colonialism is broken.

Rather than pull in different directions as is
currently the case, the African Union must take a determined stand against imperialism in its many guises, against the New Colonialism. Ass the Mai Mai Resistance Fighters in the DRC have said, "the masses of people of all nationalities and all ethnicities in Africa must unite in order to rid the continent of the domination and exploitation by foreign forces."

This means an end to deals with the IMF and World Bank in favour of African centred development that puts the interests of the African masses at the heart of all development plans. As President Chavez has demonstrated in Venezuela, any government that puts the interests of the masses of the people first, will be defended by the all powerful masses.

With hunger stalking Africa, the African Union must rapidly work out and implement an agricultural programme for Africa to feed itself without relying on imported food or other agricultural products.

This means that rather than Nigeria pulling out of OPEC as the Americans advocate, all the African oil producing countries must come together within the context of the African Union, to work out a common policy for the benefit of Africa.

As we saw at the recently concluded World Summit on Sustainable Development, the leaders who were cheered by the people were Nujoma of Namibia, Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Chavez of Venezuela, all staunch anti-imperialist fighters. On the other hand, the US secretary of State, Uncle Tom Colin Powell was roundly booed.

Having threatened the European Union and America with economic sanctions for their attacks on the Zimbabwe Government, the African Union must not only threaten, but must impose economic sanctions on Britain and America if they attempt to impose a New Colonial regime on Iraq.

After all, the factories and defence industries in Europe and America are heavily dependent on African raw materials. Africa must begin to demonstrate its economic power and begin to reorder the world in a more humane and just direction.

Then, Africa must implement the pan Africa Economic Programme through which Africa will regain its lost power and restore its past glory.
http://www.globalblacknews.com/LesterLewis.html

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Celebrating the centenary of George Padmore - African Revolutionary
Lester Lewis takes the view that George Padmore almost changed the world single-handedly in the last century. He stands out among the African men born in the Caribbean who changed the world for the better in that century ...

08/05/2002 Lester Lewis
© Copyright http://www.blackbritain.co.uk

Born in Trinidad in 1902,George Padmore was effectively the leader of the African Revolution from the time the Third Communist International - The Commintern made him leader of their Negro Section, up to the time he died in 1959.

This writer takes the view that George Padmore almost changed the world single-handedly in the last century. He stands out among the African men born in the Caribbean who changed the world for the better in that century.

He had a single purpose in life. That was to free Africa from colonial domination. He indicated this early in his life. After his marriage in 1924, he had to leave his pregnant wife in Trinidad to enrol at Fisk University (USA). He left instructions that whether the child was a boy or girl, the child must be named Blyden after Edward Wilmot Blyden. For Padmore, Edward Wilmot Blyden was the Caribbean African non-pariel (he had no living equal).

Having been given power and authority by the Commintern, with offices in Moscow, Vienna and Hamburg, he broke decisively with Moscow and the Commintern when they no longer served his purpose in life. The rise of fascism in Germany in the 1930s led
to the Soviet Communist Party changing their ant-colonialist line.

They claimed that there was a distinction between Democratic Imperialists -Britain, France and the USA and fascist imperialists - Germany, Italy and Japan. Padmore's response was that Germany and Japan did not have colonies in Africa and the United States was the most race prejudiced country in the world.

Moving to London in 1935, he linked up with his boyhood friend C. L. R. James. Here, he formed the International African Service Bureau. He wrote, spoke demonstrated and protested against colonialism in Africa while eking out a living as a Journalist. He
wrote numerous books and pamphlets. The book for which he is remembered most being PAN AFRICANISM OR COMMUNISM.

It was C. L. R. James who, by this time living in the USA, gave Kwame Nkrumah a letter of introduction to Padmore. Of Padmore, Nkrumah says:

"When I first met George...we thought along the same lines and talked the same language. There existed between us that rare affinity for which one searches for so long but seldom finds in another human being. We became friends at the moment of our meeting and friendship developed into that desirable relationship that exists between brothers."

When the United Gold Coast Convention invited Kwame Nkrumah to return to Ghana to lead the CGCC, it was Padmore who persuaded him to accept the challenge. Having listened to C. L. R. James' lecture "Nkrumah, Padmore and the Ghanaian Revolution" given at The Institute of the Black World in Atlanta (USA) in 1971, this writer is convinced that the plans Nkrumah
implemented on his return to Ghana were worked out with Padmore prior to his return.

When Ghana became independent, Padmore became Nkrumah's Adviser on African Affairs. Padmore organised the first meeting of Independent Africa's Heads of States, then he organised the first All African Peoples Congress, and then he died in 1959.

He was cremated in London. His ashes were returned to Ghana at Nkrumah's request and interred at Christianborg Castle. Then, Nkrumah said, "One day the whole of Africa will surely be free and united and when the tale is told, the significace of George Padmore's contribution will be revealed." One contemporary British described Padmore as "The silent hero of the Ghanaian Revolution."

Despite the CIA coup that overthrew Nkrumah, Ghanaians never forgot Nkrumah. At the very first opportunity, they established the george Padmore African Research Library In Accra.

Pan Africanists in London will be celebrating Padmore's centenary on June 13th at the African Caribbean Cultural Centre at Clarendon road, Hornsey, London N8. Speakers include Thamie Ka Plaatjie, the Secretary general of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. It was Padmore's influence that led Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe to set up the PAC. Other speakers come from Angola, Gambia, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Calypsonian Tobago Crusoe and others will perform the cultural aspect of this celebration.

I do not see the professors of Pan African Studies rushing to organise conferences on George Padmore. I wonder if this is because a study of Padmore's life and work will show them up.

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UK Black History Month Event Background
by Lester Lewis

Weekly Column 29 September 2003
TELLING THE AFRICAN STORY

October has come around again so it is Black History Month (BHM) in Britain. But the one thing that hardly happens in BHM is the telling of the African Story. The Black activists who pioneered the teaching of Black history in Britain are struggling to get a look in as the government, through the National Lottery Commission, has launched a determined campaign to hijack BHM.

BHM is an import from the USA. It was the North American African historian Carter G. Woodson who pioneered Negro History Month is the US in the early part of the last century. Woodson was concerned that the history of the African peoples of the world was being told by Europeans. They wrote Black history as the story of the conqueror for the conquered. He wrote two books on the subject. These are The Miseducation of the Negro and The Education of the Negro prior to 1861. So BHM in the USA was meant to correct this miseducation.

Similarly, Black children who go to school in Britain are being miseducated. That is why, when the Hackney Black Peoples Association launched a series of public lectures on Black History starting in 1984, they were very well attended. The first public lectures were given by Dr. Leonard Jeffries, then Head of the Department of Black studies at City College in New York as part of the Hackney Black Arts and Cultural Festival.

At that time, Dan Thea, the Kenyan Head of the Hackney Race Equality Unit was assisting HBPA. The establishment of Race Equality Units in local authorities was a response to the youth rebellion of the early 80s. In his book Staying Power, Peter Fryer shows that black youths staged rebellions against racial oppression in numerous British cities.

It was the apparent popularity of these public lectures that led to the Greater London Council-Inner London Education Authority being persuaded by Addai Sebo to adopt October as BHM in Britain. Since then, it has become a national phenomenon. One report suggests that as many as 1400 events are planned nationally for this month. The one thing that is not being dealt with is the demand by school students to be taught their own history in English schools.

Conscious of their racial and cultural identities, Black school students are alienated by being forced to learn the history of other peoples and cultures as though as a racial and cultural group, Africans have no history. This cultural alienation is the principal factor that has led to Black school students rejecting what they are taught in other subjects. The continued suspension of Black boys is a result of an African Cultural Resistance Movement in English schools. But the real consequence of this cultural alienation is the extremely high proportion of Black school leavers who leave school without any academic qualifications.

From since the 1960s, this problem has been apparent in English schools, hence the Swan Commission and numerous other commissions to look at the so-called underachievement of Black children. Black youths are being told that they are under achievers. The truth is that they are being miseducated. That is what Carter G. Woodson wanted to deal with in establishing Negro History Month. Not only central government, but numerous local authorities have focused on underachievement rather than cultural education through miseducation.

In the 1980s, Brent Local Education Authority set up what was supposed to be a sophisticated programme to promote racial equality in Education. But they were looking at the wrong target. One of the questions they asked was "Why Black children resist what they were being taught in schools?" The solution they came up with was a Cognitive Modification Programme imported from Israel. I wrote about this at the time and said the purpose was to perform psychological experiments in the classroom in order to change toe cognitive styles of Black children. Certain sections of he Jewish Community took umbrage to this and launched a scurrilous campaign against this writer in the Jewish controlled media.

Berkshire Local Education Authority had adopted a comprehensive policy of Education for Racial Equality. Not that it made much difference to what was happening in the schools in the Royal county. When they attempted to change this to introduce a cognitive modification programme under the guise of an Action Plan, it led to outrage. The Action Plan was withdrawn after a campaign led by Berkshire County Councillor Joe Williams.

Rather than deal with this problem of cultural alienation, the authorities are attempting to hijack BHM and use it as an instrument for controlling Blacks. It started with the Home Office using the Commission for Racial Equality to produce glossy magazines for BHM and using them as a tool to recruit young Blacks into the army and police. This strategy failed. Next came the National Lottery Commission. It put up £500,000 for BHM. Most of the money went to established British institutions like the British Museum. Black organisations hardly got a look in. This year, the Victoria and Albert Museum has a month long programme for BHM including food tasting.

Also this year, London Mayor Ken Livingstone and his flunkey Lee Jasper are promoting themselves as champions of Black History. But Lee Jasper is a Jewish agent working within the Black Community. Jewish agencies funded his 1990 Trust and promoted it as a force for positive change within the Black community. But the opposite is true as witnessed by its Operation Black Vote.

Jasper and the 1990 Trust mounted an expensive London wide campaign to persuade Black people to go out and vote for the Labour Party. This is opposite to the Campaign for Black Representation that surfaced in Hackney in the 1980s. It had positive outcomes with the selection and election of Diane Abbot as the Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and the election of nineteen Black Councillors in Hackney in 1986. But that campaign could not withstand the onslaught launched against it by white members of the Labour party.

It was the success of that campaign that persuaded Jasper and his funders to launch Operation Black Vote. Despite its massive funding, not a single Black Member of Parliament or a single Black Councillor has been elected as a result of Operation Black Vote. Only one Black MP has been elected since the 1980s. This is David Lammy who succeeded Bernie Grant. He is very well educated, very intelligent and articulate. The only problem is that he is being used to promote the New Colonialism. Has anyone heard Lammy utter a single word criticising the US-British invasion and occupation of Iraq despite the massive opposition within the black community? Like Colin Powell and Condoleeza (condemned) Rice in the USA, he will go far.

It was also interesting to note that Jasper wrote a paper putting himself forward as leader of the campaign for reparations for slavery and colonialism in Britain. This was rejected by Pan Africanists in the forefront of the campaign. He also tried to disrupt the Marcus Garvey birthday celebrations in Brixton last year. He planned an open-air rally right next to the rally celebrating Garvey's 115th birthday. Apart from the sound hired sound systems meant t! o play loud music to drown out the speakers at the Marcus Garvey event, only the police and paid staff of the 1990 trust turned up. They were forced to call off their event. What became clear is that this much promoted spokesman for the black community has no real support within this community and that he spoke only for himself and his funders.

But the history of the African peoples of the world is being written by from an African cultural standpoint by Africans with the European contact being seen purely as an African experience. Historians such as the late Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal, Theophile Obenga of Congo and Professor Adu Boahen of Ghana forced UNESCO to adopt that position in writing the General History of Africa. Indeed, a new school of history has developed among African scholars who follow in the footsteps of Diop.

Using the pages of the French language presence Africaine, Diop articulated the view that human civilisation developed in Africa (see his African Origin of Civilisation Myth or Reality). This view was rejected by his teachers at the Sorborne in Paris where he studied for his doctorate. Having originally refused him his PhD, they could not refuse him when he marshaled witnesses and the evidence of history to support the fact.

European writers of the African story have tended to write Africans out of history. But when Africans were civilised and lived in cities, Europe had not been named and was still virgin forest. It was the Africans from who built the first university in Europe at Salamanca in Spain, then a colony of the Almorovides who initially came from the area around Senegal. The news from Spain is that the Basques are seeking autonomy and eventually independence from Spain. What the Spanish will never tell you is that one of their most famous cities, Barcelona, was founded by the African Hamilcar Barca, the father of Hannibal, the most famous military strategist in history.

The British objection to the teaching of Black history in British schools may be concerned with the history of black people in Britain. In early British history, Blacks are not in the lowly position they are in today. Blacks are shown as Kings, rulers, invaders and conquerors. They appear in various aspects of British mythology including the mythological story of the legendary King Arthur.

Blacks ruled in Scotland and Nothumbria. Black rulers in Britain imposed the head tax from which the term blackmail comes. It was known as watch money or mail money and because it was a tax imposed by Blacks, it eventually became known as Blackmail. It was the long held memory of this head tax first imposed by Blacks that led to such mass resistance when Margaret Thatcher imposed a poll tax that was similar in nature. The negative connotations to the word black in the English only arose when the Blacks were defeated in Scotland in 1445. So we see that Blacks have been written out of the British story.

It is a shame and a pity that in some African countries, the European version of the African story i.e. the story of the conqueror is still being taught in their schools. In one of his books, Chinweizu complained about writing by African writers writing from a European standpoint being taught in African universities as the only African literature. He described this as being like a mangrove of hybrid saplings in the vast and ancient forest of African literature.

We may soon see the publication of some of the older African writings. The works of Ahmed Baba, who wrote over forty books while teaching at the University of Timbuktu, should be published. So should the epic poem written about Sundiata. Legend has it that the families in Mali preserved these writings. Diasporan Africans make regular pilgrimages to Timbuktu.

In the meantime, with so many events planned for BHM, the question is whether these events tell the African story or whether the British Government will succeed in its attempt to hijack another African institution. Already, BHM is being promoted as an Afro-Asian event. But in the 1980s, the Home Office through one of its arms, the Commission for Racial Equality, gave instructions that Asians should not be described as black. But where money and the distortion of the African story is concerned, changing one's racial identity comes easily.

Lester Lewis

[Make your views known: Either call the London Celebrates Black Heritage Hotline +44 (0) 20 7983 4969, or email: Blackheritage@london.gov.uk.]

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JEWS AND AFRICAN STORY: THE ATTACK ON TONY MARTIN BY BRITISH JEWS

by Lester Lewis

The front page of the Zionist JEWISH CHRONICLE of Friday October 17, 2003 carries the headline: "Livingstone bars anti-Jewish historian from conference." One can trust the Zionist Chronicles to to spread confusion about an issue that has enraged he Black community in London. Martin has been barred from speaking on the conference platform. He is not barred from attending the conference. Professor Tony Martin is a lecturer at Wellesley College, USA and the world's foremost scholar on the life and works of the Honourable Marcus Garvey. He was invited to speak at a Black History conference in London organised by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London. The invitation was withdrawn on the basis of the correspondence reproduced here.

(October 15, 2003 Jasper letter, above)

Despite claims to the contrary by the Zionist Chronicles, what has emerged is that the Jewish Chronicle, in collaboration with other Jews and Zionists, put pressure on London Mayor Ken Livingstone to withdraw the invitation to Tony Martin.

This is the second time that Jews have decided that they will determine who will speak to the Black community in London. The first was when they had Louis Farrakhan banned in 1986. That this is an international Jewish conspiracy to humiliate and insult the black community in Britain can not be denied. They have fought a long and bitter campaign against Tony Martin. Yet they have been unsuccessful in their objective of having him dismissed from his post at Wellesley College.

They were upset when Dr. Martin put a new book on the reading list for his students. This book is entitles THE SECRET RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BLACKS AND JEWS. All the information contained in the book was taken from ! written Jewish sources so it is irrefutable. Notwithstanding, the Jews branded Tony Martin as anti-semitic.

For the record, Semitic is a linguistic term. Most of the Semitic languages are spoken in Africa. Also, being a Jew has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Judaism, the Jewish religion is multi-racial and multi-lingual.

Now, Wellesley College is where the white protestant American establishment sends their daughters to finishing school. Hillary Clinton, wife of former US President Bill Clinton, is a former student at Wellesley. In the middle of their campaign against Martin, the Jews were humiliated by former students who held a grand banquet in honour of the distinguished Professor.

Besides that, Tony Martin answered the Jewish-Zionist attack in a book entitled, The Jewish Onslaught: Despatches from the Wellesley Battlefront. This is available in bookshops in London. Here, Professor Martin details the machinations, lies and anti-African racist propaganda of Mary Lefkowitz who led the campaign against him, and other Jewish-Zionist writers.

But why is a White London Mayor getting involved in organising events for Black History Month in Britain. The month of October is designated BHM in Britain. It came on the back of a series of popular Black History lectures organised by Pan African activists in London. It now seems that the purpose was to make it a British establishment event to be used as one of the tools for controlling Black people in Britain. In this regard, the British authorities have been trying to hijack an African event and turn it into a multi-racial event including Asians and Jews.

The vehicle first used for this purpose was the Commission for Racial Equality, an arm of the Home Office and thus a part of the state machinery. It began by publishing glossy magazines and using them to try to recruit blacks into the ranks of the British army and police. That strategy having failed, the next vehicle was the National Lottery Commission. In 2001, the NLC put up £500,000 ($800,000) for BHM in a blaze of publicity. Most of the money went to the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, institutions for the promotion of British imperialist culture.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone is also using the financial muscle of the Greater London Authority as part of the process of hijacking BHM, of defining the African story which for the white rulers of Britain, is the story of the conqueror for the conquered.

It is a fact of life that some blacks who describe themselves as radicals are cynical careerists and opportunists who follow the money. Most of them are colonials who betray the Black cause when they are called upon to do so. Not surprisingly, a number of them ended up in the equalities and policing unit in he Mayor's office. In the case of lee Jasper, he volunteered to work as an agent of Jews and Zionists within the Black community, promoting himself as a black leader but not saying on whose behalf he is working.

Jasper came to prominence with the launch of the Jewish financed 1990 Trust. It fell to him ! to carry out the instructions of the Jews to bar Tony Martin from speaking at the conference. He has publicly stated that his ambition is to become a Labour Party Member of Parliament. He has the support of the metropolitan police and his Jewish masters. He is notorious for trying to disrupt an open-air rally held in Brixton in August 2002 to celebrate the 115th birthday of the Honourable Marcus Garvey.

Jasper also put himself forward as leader of the African Reparations Movement in Britain but Reparations activists have shunned him. As part of Livingstone's BHM programme, he put himself forward as a candidate for the title of Greatest Black Britain. Also on the list is Baroness Valerie Amos who has been brought in as a replacement speaker for Tony Martin. Previously, she has not shown any interest in Black History. She is notorious for attending the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in South Africa in 2001 to argue that slavery is not a crime against humanity. She represented the British government at that event.

Another person on the list is Queen Sophia Charlotte Micklenburg who as queen of Britain during the days of slavery, never lifted a finger in condemnation of this inhuman practice. The list includes names of historical Africans who lived in Britain at some time in their lives. Notable absentees from the list include Kwame Nkrumah and the Honourable Marcus Garvey.

It seems that anyone who does not speak of the Jews in glowing terms is branded anti-semitic. The London Guardian newspaper reported that "A senior editor of he US based New Republican magazine has apologised for writing in his column that the producers of the film 'Kill Bill' are Jewish Executives who worship money." At the same time, the Jews launched an international campaign to condemn Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as racist and anti-semitic. Mohamad told a conference in Malaysia that "Jews are running the world by proxy."

But Mohathir Mohamad is no racist. He ! staunchly supported Zimbabwe in its conflict with Britain. Anyone who doubts that Jews seek to control the world by proxy should look at the architects of the Project for the New American Century under which the US invaded and occupied Iraq. They are mainly Jews. They forced US President George Bush to overplay his hand and now the US stands exposed as a declining power.

Doubters can also read Shingai Rukwata Ndoro's SECRET RIGHT WING FORCES AGAINST ZIMBABWE. This shows how Jews are the leading force financing the campaign against President Robert Mugabe and the Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe.

I too have personal experience of a Jewish hate campaign in the Jewish controlled media. Like Tony Martin, I found myself on the front page of the Jewish Chronicle in 1988. I was then working as a Community Relations Officer at the Reading Council for Racial Equality. The Jewish hate campaign was aimed at having me dismissed from my post.

My crimes were that I had pointed out a cognitive Modification Modification programme imported from Israel that was to be used on Black children attending school in the London borough of Brent. The purpose was to change the cognitive styles of Black children who rejected what they were being taught in these schools. My second crime was that I had campaigned to lift the ban on Louis Farrakhan entering Britain, imposed at the instigation of British Jews.

An inquiry found that while there were a lot of accusations, there was no evidence of me being anti-Jewish. The only evidence seen by the inquiry was of me doing things for the benefit of Jews. My evidence to the Inquiry was the contents of Psalms chapter 35 in the Holy Torah. They failed in their campaign just as they have failed miserably in heir campaign against Tony Martin.

I take the view that if the Jewish story as told in the Holy Torah is to be believed then the Jews an ungrateful people who should bow down to Blacks. After all, we have saved them three times in their history. These Jews, who today practice anti-African racism as the norm have forgotten one thing they learned during their sojourn in Africa. This is the African teaching that "Things turn into their opposites." Since they have forgotten, their own history should teach them the truth of that saying. With the decline of United States imperialism, they will find it increasingly difficult to get others to do their bidding.

Lester Lewis
(first published on http://www.blacksandjews.com/Martin.UK.Disinvitation2.html#anchor282482

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CLAUDIA JONES ORGANISATION


CELEBRATING 21 YEARS 0F SERVICE TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY

Lester Lewis

When Yvette Thomas, born in the Dutch Antiles Island of Aruba in the Caribbean, founded the Claudia Jones Organisation, she wrote her name into the history of the African peoples of the world. Another who did the same was Jamaican born Dr. Harold Moody. He founded the League of Coloured Peoples in Tottenham Court Road, London in 1931.

If we go as far back as 1780, we find a Black Community Group, The Sons of Africa. That numbered among its membership such distinguished servants of Africa as Ouladah Equanio, Ottobah Cuguano, Yahne Aelane, Boughwa Geogansmel, Jasper Goree, Cojoh Ammere and Stella Thomas, fighting against the forced enslavement of Africans. Stella Thomas further distinguished herself by becoming the very first woman barrister in Britain. White women barristers came after her.

Unlike Harold Moody who remained President of the League from its inception until he died in 1947, Yvette gave up the Chairmanship of CJO after five years and took a back seat, leaving others to run what has become, one of the most successful women's organisations in Britain, Black or White. I spoke to Yvette about her reasons for starting CJO; it's experience over the years and what she sees as its future.

She told me, "The main reason for starting the organisation that evolved into CJO was that there was a big void in Hackney for Black women. There was a need for a black Women's organiisation. Before that, we were in OWAAD - Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent. I was involved with a number of women in starting different groups.

"I realised that there were a number of Black children coming out of care; there were Black people going into the mental health institutions; there were Black children being excluded from school and I realised that it was important for Black women to have a voice. That is why it was important to have a black woman's organisation.

"First, we started the Hackney Black Women's Group, then we set up Ackee Housing Association. Later the name was changed to Claudia Jones Organisation. At the time, my partner Buzz Johnson who gave us a great deal of support, was researching a book on Claudia Jones and suggested the organisation be named after her for her contribution, particularly in the field of culture. Alpheus gent, an architect, also gave us a great deal of help with our first building.

"Claudia Jones was born in Trinidad in 1915. She was a Communist operating in USA. During the notorious mMacCarthite era when they were witch hunting Communists, she came to live in Britain in the late 1950s. She it was who first started organising carnival in West London after the anti-Black riots in Nottinghill in 1958. This has built up to what we have today as the Nottinghill Carnival, the biggest street festival in Europe. She died in 1964 and is buried in Highgate cemetery next to Karl Marx.

"In the beginning, the role of the Black Women's Group was for Black women to get together, to organise themselves and look at what was happening in the wider Black community. Also, to take a lot of Black women out of their homes. Many of those involved at the inception of the organisation had never been involved in organisations per se before.

"The original members of the management Committee apart from me were Claudia Sutherland, Yasmin Taylor, Barbara Daniel, Diane Jordan, Vera Jobe, Margaret Hamilton, Joycelin Samuels and Etta Innis. The Trustees are Norma Claudia and myself. Later, women like Pernel Roberts, Bernice Vanya, Rose Gabriel and Norma Roberts joined the management Committee

"Some of the women involved had been in the Christian Churches and were just getting on with their daily lives. For example, Sister Ryan who started the Pentecostal Church of Shiloh in 1965 was a voluntary worker working with the elderly and with women. She blessed our first building. Shiloh is now a very successful church. It celebrated its 39th anniversary just over a week ago on 15 February. So in a way, CJO brought out a lot of women who would not otherwise be reaching out to support women and helping women in the community.

"For me, our greatest achievement is the establishment of Ackee housing Project. It was established to support young Black women in our community. Because Ackee has been there, a lot of these women were supported when they came out of care. They were housed and given support and are now living independently, supporting themselves.

"CJO was supposed to be like a tree with branches emanating from its trunks. Each branch was supposed to be a project. Members of the original Management Committee had responsibility for the various projects envisaged. Margaret Hamilton had responsibility for Health. Bernice Vanya had responsibility for education. Rose Gabriel had responsibility for Under-fives. Etta and Claudia were interested in Children coming out of care. I was responsible for Housing.

"The Education Project which is extremely successful came long after Ackee was established and I would say our next greatest achievement is the Saturday school and the Summer School. We also now have an Easter project. Our next achievement was the purchase of another building in Palatine Road.

"CJO has to pursue its Education Project. I am saddened that we no longer have the Elderly Project due to loss of funding. But I would like CJO to establish its own school. That has always been the dream of Bernice Vanya. She suggested it a very long time ago. I think that is our way forward because a lot of our children are failing in the system.

"Supporting our children going through the system and extending it to those doing 'A' Levels and even those at university who may need help. I think that should be the way forward for CJO. Because of the changes that are coming in post-sixteen education and the new certificate, we would have to support our children. Black people feel left out. We are not supported or consulted.

"I have no problems with an ALL BLACK SCHOOL once it is positive, once it is going to support our children, I have no problem with that. You need different models for different children. We have looked at how the system has failed a lot of our children. There is no point of having an ALL BLACK SCHOOL if we are not going to have strong discipline and strong parental involvement whatever model we have. The school has to be willing to dialogue with the parents.

"For me, one of the great success stories of CJO is Norma Roberts. She is a very dynamic and successful woman working in our community. Her son, who has established his own church in New Adington used to attend CJO Saturday School. She established Bells, a housing project for the elderly in Bouverie Road in Stoke Newington. She is helping to set up a nursery in New Addington. She runs a travel agency and she manufactures soft drinks. I take my hat off to Norma."

I spoke to Norma Roberts and asked her about her involvement in CJO. She said, "I used to do a lot of fundraising in my Church at Northumberland Park. My friend Etta was on the Management Committee, she thought it would be good for me to be involved in CJO. She introduced me to CJO of which Yvette Thomas is the founder. We used to have meetings at her house, many meetings at her house really.

"It was quite good involving women in the community. We had a lady who used to run Shiloh Pentecostal Church and we got her to run the Women's Project. I was involved in the Management Committee. I was the treasurer of Ackee Housing Project.

"Ackee was good. It used to deal with young people. Sometimes, it took them abroad to see Jamaica and other Islands in the Caribbean. Most of them were born here and most of them were from Children's homes so Ackee used to take them to see the Caribbean."

Norma Roberts is a real hero. She is one of those Black women who do a tremendous amount of work in the community that is not acknowledged. She is strongly committed to her Christian faith and is a 'Doer of the Word' as opposed to a lot of Christians who are 'Sayers of the Word'. She is the author of two books, The Ministry of Ushering and A Woman A Wife A Mother and Her Faith.

She said, "I set up Bells Project from my home as I didn't have office space anywhere else. I named it after the Bishop of our Church, The Church of God in Christ. I helped to set up Living Logos Community Nursery for children from two to five as part of my son's Church, the Living Logos Christian Ministries. The Nursery and other projects are called Living Logos Community Care. We hope to set up a Mentoring Project and a day Centre for the Elderly."

This writer has been a witness of CJO operations over the years and the moves made by hostile forces to try to cripple that organisation. As a former Labour Councillor in Hackney, I have seen how the Labour Party controlled Council in Hackney launched an onslaught on Black organisations in Hackney.

At one time, as a condition for getting a grant, Black organisations were required to put homosexuals on their Management Committees. But homosexuality is a taboo in African culture. It is one of the things we must not do. The White Councillor who was pushing that policy suffered divine retribution. He died of Aids.

So it is not surprising that despite its tremendous successes, CJO has suffered from funding cuts just as other Black organisations have done. It now receives no core funding from Hackney. It receives project funding from the government and the European Union through the Council.

Prior to the setting up of Hackney Black Women's Group, Joycelin Bunbury, now the Head Teacher of Colvestone School, carried out research into the needs of Black women in Hackney. These needs are provided by CJO and it is looking forward to continue providing these services and if possible, to expand its services to the community over the next 1 years.

CJO could have got a building known as The Factory in Church Street for £55,000 but Hackney Council opposed it. They did not want a Black organisation in an area that was being gentrified. Now that building is worth over £500,000. Hackney Labour controlled Council said that under no circumstances would planning permission be given for CJO to move into that building. They said they did not want Community Groups around Church Street but they allowed the Irish Women's Centre to set up in Church Street.

CJO has two full time and thirteen part-time employees, mostly employed in the various Education Projects. The Director of CJO is Hazel Ellis and her Deputy is the multi-functional Nadine Esty who carries out multi-faceted tasks. One of the projects currently running is a family Mentoring Project. The support worker for this project is Eugena Ellis.


Among its many achievements, CJO was the first UK organisation to celebrate Emancipation (from slavery) Day in Britain. This was long before journalist and TV presenter Onyekachu Wambu established African Remembrance Day on August 1 as an annual event.

On health, CJO deals with the whole family. It holds conferences to discuss illnesses common among Black men like prostrate cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. It is involved in supporting women with lupus, fibroids, hysterectomy and other diseases common to women. Currently, it is running a course on parenting.

Due to its successes, visitors have come from far and near; from the USA, the Caribbean,

Europe and many High Commissions. When the President of Botswana was on a State Visit, his wife visited CJO. Another distinguished visitor whom I took to visit CJO was Gamal Nkrumah, the son of Kwame Nkrumah and international editor of Al Ahram published in Cairo.

The founders of CJO are women on a mission, determined to succeed, what ever the setbacks. If they decide to set up a fully functioning school, then no force on earth will stop them. They have come within the tradition of their African culture that teaches us to "feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, give water to the thirsty and to minister unto the sick."

One can not deny that the best way to fulfil these cultural requirements today is to make sure that children achieve academic and cultural excellence. So the education of Black children looks like staying as one of the core activities that it will focus on in the future.

Joycelin Samuel was a founder member of the Black Women's Group. She left the Management Committee to become the first worker of the group. She told me, "We started off in a small room in Stoke Newington Church Street. I was the Admin worker, Vereen Ryan was the Education worker, Maggie Smith was setting up Ackee with Joy Andries and Heather Peters was the Health worker.

"In terms of administration, I was the one who set up CJO. I would say that its main achievement is the Summer School. Although the Summer School and the Saturday School were both established and running at the same time, the Summer School was a clear success story before the Saturday School. One of my main interests was the promotion of African culture, dance, music, fashion and history. These are all things that CJO has been involved with over the years."

Etta Ennis, another founder member said that she "had a desire to help people, the elderly, children in care and people in prison." Her primary interests are children in care and the elderly. Her view is that CJO should start developing homes for the elderly.

Claudia Sutherland who is a former Treasurer is now the Chairman. She said, "I got involved as a Black woman working in residential care. I wanted to work in a community group that would help young Blacks. I felt that the community needed to take responsibility for children in care.

"Ackee Housing is one of the highlights. It was set up for vulnerable young black women. Another highlight when we got a building so we had a base, and now we have a building in Palatine Road, a space that we have so people can find space.

"The education Project was another highlight. Other communities have tended to educate their young people in a way that we have not. This is primarily a result of our history and where we are coming from. If you enslave people, you take away their language and their culture, you educate them in the way that you want.

"If we hold our children at summer and Easter, we give them something that has ben lost. Children meet other children on a regular basis, make friends, socialise and build communities. That is what CJO is about, integrating young with old, boys with men and girls with women.

"I am optimistic for the future. I know there is going to be a struggle for funding but we can't depend on handouts. There has to be a future despite this crisis in funding. We must tap into the resources within our own community.

"We will be here in another 21 years. I cannot envisage a future for the black community in Hackney without CJO. I tell my children that they must not look down upon the cleaner and listen to people say it was because they were slaves. I tell them that we survived slavery because we were clever."

The celebrations on Saturday 21 August includes a hanks Giving Service, a buffet and a Promises Auction to raise funds for the refurbishment of their building in Palatine Road Stoke Newington. Anyone wishing to contact CJO or to make a donation to their building fund can phone 0207 241 1646 or Email: cjouk@btclick.com.

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CENTENARY PAN AFRICAN CONFERENCE A RESOUNDING SUCCESS
(from the website http://www.rootzreggae.com/Rootz-kulcha/PanAfricanConference.htm)

The Centenary Pan African Conference, held at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London, England on Saturday July 22nd 2000, was a resounding success. It ended on a note of triumph with delegates "calling on Pan Africanists and Africans every where to intensify the struggle for Pan Africanism." This was defined in the conference resolution as "a democratic, egalitarian, socialist Pan African Union ruled by African Culture, in which Africa produces what it consumes and consumes what it produces." The Conference was attended by 126 delegates from all over the African world -South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, the Caribbean, the USA and Europe. It was held to commemorate the first Pan African Conference held in London in July, 1900 and to set the Pan African agenda for the 21st century. Particular attention was paid to the family tradition within Pan Africanism. Writer/Publisher Margaret Busby represented the family of George F. Christian. He was born in Dominica in the Caribbean and was a delegate to the 1900 Pan African Conference. Following that Conference, he went to live in Ghana in 1902. Margaret was joined at the Conference reception by BBC television News Reader Moira Stuart, another descendant of George F. Christian. George Padmore, organiser of the historic 5th Pan African Conference held in Manchester, England in 1945, was represented by his 74 years old daughter Blyden Cowart and his granddaughter Lindia Blyden Randall. Speaking on behalf of herself and her mother, Lindia told fellow delegates, "My mother and I would like to think that George Padmore would be pleased that you are here. For he would know that his and others' life works although not done, are not forgotten. And for that, my mother and I thank you." Kwame Nkrumah was represented at the Conference by his daughter Samia. Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr of the Association For the Study of Classic African Civilisations (USA) paid a handsome tribute to the Pan African writer and educator C. L. R. James. Other delegates paying tribute to former Pan Africanists were Dr. Ira Phillip of Bermuda; Karl Stein who paid tribute to Henry Sylvester Williams, organiser of the 1900 Pan African Conference; Isha McKenzie-Mavinga paid tribute to her father Ernest McKenzie-Mavinga, a delegate to the 1945 Manchester Congress; Lindiwe Tsele paid tributes to Lembede, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe and Zephaniah Mothopeng of Azania (South Africa); Koro Sallah of Gambia paid tribute to all Pan Africanists - past, present and future. The highlight of the Conference was a sparkling and inspirational keynote address given by Dr. Motsoko Pheko, Deputy President of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and a member of the South African Parliament. "The only way Africans can regain their lost power and past glory is by relying on themselves, developing the self-confidence necessary to control all the affairs of Africa and creating a world of interdependence," Dr. Pheko told delegates. "Africans can regain their lost power only through continental unity, which Henry Sylvester Willkiams, the organiser of the 1900 Pan African Conference called Pan Africanism." He said that "Pan Africanism is the political philosophy which Africans must adopt, embrace and apply if Africa, the second continent in the world with untold riches is to emerge as a world power. It is only through Pan Africanism that a united Africa, speaking with one voice and pursuing a bold, common policy on matters that affect all African interests can be created." Dr. Pheko paid handsome tributes to Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, Maurice Bishop of Grenada and Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe of South Africa. "They were all overthrown, poisoned or killed because they fought for the Pan African cause.

But the African struggle for control of Africa by Africans for Africans shall never be destroyed." Dr. Pheko said that "Pan Africanism and Socialism were organically complimentary; African countries must prioritise and maximise the study of modern science and technology in all her institutions of learning; African countries must stop exporting their raw materials; Africans must avoid "aid" that is for the recolonisation of Africa; Africa must formulate a foreign investment policy; Africa must build military capacity for the defence of African interests; Africa must increase her population; strengthen the Pan African Movement continentally and worldwide; Africa must 'delegitimise globalisation' as an option for development in Africa." In his conclusion, Dr. Pheko looked forward to "a powerful United States of Africa." Lester Lewis, the Convenor of the Centenary Pan African Conference said, "The question now is not whether there will be a Pan African Union, but what kind of Pan African Union? All states with majority African populations like Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the other Caribbean Islands must be part of the coming Pan African Union. Just as the 1900 Conference set the African agenda for the 20th century, so this 2000 Pan African Conference has set the African agenda for the 21st Century."

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Happy Genna

Weekly column for 16 January 2004


By Lester Lewis


Genna is one of the Ethiopian words for Christmas. It is celebrated on the 7th day of January. According to the Orthodox Christian teachings, January 7 is the actual birthday of the long expected Coming One, known as Jesus the Christ. Ethiopia itself is the oldest Christian country. It adopted Christianity hundreds of years before the Europeans adopted Christianity as the state religion of Rome and the Holy Roman Empire.


While the Europeans changed Christianity to suit their cultural and social practices, in Ethiopia, the forms of worship laid down over 2,000 years ago continue up to the present time. In Ethiopia, Genna is preceded by a forty day fast. According to Sister Lily Mihirete, a Rastafarian Sister from Cuba, "there are many fast days in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian calendar. Orthodox Christians are supposed to fast every Wednesday and Friday. On fast days, Ethiopians eat only one meal in the evening. This must not contain meat or dairy products."


Genna celebrations in Britain are usually organised by Rastafarian groups. This year, the celebrations were organised by three groups; The Ethiopian World Federation Negusa Negast Local 3, the L33 Women's Relief Association and the Nyahbinghi House at the Theorem Music Centre at Willesden, in North West London. Following what is called an Ivotional ceremony and the Drums of Ras Tafari, there followed an address by Sister Pauline, the President of the EWF. Then followed a children's programme.


The children's programme took the form of a play about Miriam, the human mother of Jesus the Christ. In Indo-European languages, she is called Mary, but in Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic, Aramaic and Tigrigna, this is rendered as Miriam. Directed by Sister Tegesta Selassie of the L33 Women's Relief Association, the play depicted Miriam's flight with her infant child from the wicked king Herod to Ethiopia.


According to Sister Tegesta, "The play was taken from extracts of the book "Legend Of Our Lady Mary The Perpetual Virgin," translated by Sir E. A Wallis Budge, a curator at be British Museum in the 1800s. One line in this book states, "Israel and Judah have forgotten Miriam." It involved the children performing the play in five costume changes, plus songs and chants by members of Wingi's Drama Group, and drumming by Ras Mowatt who also played king Balthazar. The series of brilliant costumes were made by Sister Jasmine Mullings. The singers also included I. Anderson, P. Makoni-White, T. Makoni-White and Sister Ikola.


Following the play which was extremely well received, performances by Sister Yesika and the Burma Drummers, there was a Binghi. This consisted of drumming, chanting and dancing all through the night. In this Genna, there was a sense of one-ness, a sense of community, and a family affair where all the participants chanted, sang and danced together.


It was while participating in this celebration of Genna that I realised a truth about Kwanzaa. I had participated in African United Action Front's Kwanzaa celebrations on 26 and the Alkebulan Revivalist Movement's celebrations on 30 December. I came to realise that Kwanzaa is an amorphous construction capable of being interpreted in many different ways. Kwanzaa has no central focus. It has no heart, body or soul as it leaves out GOD, the central feature in African culture.


The Theorem Music Centre was packed for the Genna. Yet, it had not been very widely advertised or promoted. Many thousands of Rastafarians and peoples of African descent who do not participate in Europeanised Christian celebrations did not know of the event. When word began to spread that the Genna celebrations were going on, people dressed in their traditional African apparel arrived in a constant stream after midnight. Sister Pauline pledged to get a bigger venue for the next Genna celebrations on January 7, 2005, and she thanks all those who participated and for their contributions to offset the cost of the event.


This Genna or birth of Christ celebration, although over 2,000 years old in its Ethiopian form, is a modern version of an old African religious celebration that stretches back over 22,500 years. The original Virgin Mother in history is Ast, known by her Greek name of Isis. This history of Miriam and the birth of her son as reported in the Gospel of St. Luke, is found in the history of Africans living along the banks of the Nile river and is well documented in Gerald Massey's book entitled Ancient Egypt, The Light of the World.


Sister Tegasta also thanks all those who have supported L33WRA over the years. In the past, they have sent medical supplies to the Hospital at Shashamane in Ethiopia including a gynaecological set, hypodermic needles, thermometers, control pumps, surgical gloves, Aprons etc. L33WRA has set themselves a target of raising £137,000 for sanitation and to build a new wing to the hospital at Shashamane. Surely, they are deserving of support. In the meantime, Happy Genna.
Please click here to see pictures of the event: pictures

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PRE-DETERMINED OUTCOME TO NEW CROSS MASSACRE INQUEST
ADULTS AT PARTY TO BE BLAMED FOR FIRE DEATHS


It seems that the new Inquest into the New Cross Massacre will turn out to be a farce. The adults at the party, which was fire bombed on 18th January 1981, are to be blamed for starting the fire that led to the deaths of 13 Black youths aged 15 -20 years.

Initial police reports indicated that a petrol bomb had been thrown through the ground floor window of the house at 439 New Cross Road SE14. According to the police reports, the fire which gutted the house and killed 13 Black youths was caused by a firebomb. That was how it was reported in radio and television news.

On Monday 19th January 1981, the Sun newspaper carried the headline "9 DIE IN PARTY FIRE BOMB HORROR." The paper reported that the nine young people confirmed dead and the 30 injured had been trapped "by flames which spread through the three storey house within minutes of the petrol bomb being thrown through a ground floor window."

It added, "Police said the motive for the 5.50 a.m. attack appeared to be revenge - either by someone angry at the loud reggae music, or by a gate crasher who had been thrown out of the party." It seems the one thing that the police were absolutely sure of, the fire bombing was not the work of racists and fascists.

Thus, the police conducted their inquiries to fit their prior illogical theory about who threw the petrol bomb through the window on that fateful morning. At every point, without any evidence to back up their theory, the police pointed the finger at Black people for committing such a heinous crime. Now, we are told by the Independent on Sunday that the inquest will determine that the adults at the party deliberately set fire to foam filled armchair. people for perpetuating such a heinous crime.

In its edition of Sunday 1 February 2004 on page 8, the Independent on Sunday carried the headline: "Fresh inquiry into New Cross fire will blame adults at party." In her article, Sophie Goodchild wrote, "The Independent on Sunday has also learned much of the blame will be directed at a group of adults." Obviously, the police are once again pointing the finger at Blacks as they have done from the outset, and feeding misinformation and disinformation to the media.

This amazing transformation of the cause of the fire should not be surprising. It fits in neatly with the police theory that the firebombing was not a racist attack. So the result of this new Inquest will be similar to the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr. David Kelly. The Hutton Inquiry arrived at conclusions that were at variance with the evidence given at the Inquiry. With the new Inquest into the New Cross Massacre, the police will manufacture the evidence to suit their pre-determined theory arrived at before their investigation.

In a statement released on the 20th anniversary of the massacre, the New Cross Massacre Action Committee looked at the context in which the massacre occurred. It noted that some observers and commentators had criticised the Black population for so readily believing that the New Cross fire was caused by a racist attack, by a racist firebomb and for being so suspicious about police behaviour and intentions. It stated that "this betrays the failure to understand the following history and the context."

"The Black and Asian communities had been complaining for many years about the lack of police action or interest over racist attacks. The police history of being extremely reluctant even to acknowledge the existence of racially motivated attacks…

"A lot of Black people remembered an incident similar to the New Cross Fire, which had occurred 10 years earlier in the same part of London on 3 January 1971. This incident was known as the Sunderland Road firebombing. Three petrol bombs were thrown into a West Indian party at 47 Sunderland road, Ladywell and several people injured.

"The most seriously injured were Renford Carty, Leroy Jackson and Cherry Jackson. Eventually, two white people were tried for the crime at the Old Bailey under the Malicious Damages Act and found guilty.

"One Pamela Holman was sent to Borstal. The other Derek Reynolds, was sentenced to five years in prison. Earlier on 22 January 1971, a march to Ladywell Police station by about 150 people and their supporters demanding police action over the bombing, had resulted in the arrest of about half the demonstrators."

The NMAC also looked at the police response to the New Cross Massacre. It found "the police response to the tragedy was to mount a campaign of disinformation, denying and discrediting any talk about racist murder or attack, even on Monday 19th January 1981, when their investigation had only just begun. Using the media to spread disinformation about the causes of the fire and who was responsible and always in a direction hostile to the black population.

"After the first 24 hours, they devoted considerable effort to denying that the fire could have been caused by a racist attack. They also consistently attempted to discredit young people and adults, who had been at the party and, as such, were victims of the fire and they tried to discredit the New Cross Massacre Action Committee and others who campaigned for a proper investigation and the uncovering of the truth about the fire.

"The police response was led by Commander Graham Stockwell. Commander Stockwell had earned some notoriety over his behaviour in the Confait case when convictions had been secured in unacceptable ways."

In looking at the media response, NMAC noted "some sections of the media were actively hostile to those Black people and others who campaigned to establish the truth about the fire and against the police failure to carry out a proper investigation into the crime.

"An example was the Daily Mail crime reporter. He wrote in the Daily Mail on 25th February 1981, a few days before the Black People's Day of Action on 2nd march 1981, a story under the heading "Killer Blaze: Charge Soon" suggesting that eight black boys at the party admitted to the police deliberately causing the fire by sprinkling wall paper stripper on the floor and setting it alight. No arrests were ever made and the police strategy collapsed at the New Cross Fire Inquest, held at the then Greater London Council County hall, when all eight youths stated that the police had forced them to make false statements under duress that they had caused the fire as a result of a fight at the party."

The NMAC also looked at the Official Response from the Government and government agencies. It noted "Officials, in the form of leading politicians, the police and selected media outlets, attempted to dampen down mass action by working through community intermediaries to discredit those resisting police actions concerning the New Cross fire investigation. Discouraging support for the Black People's day of Action on Monday 21st March 1981.

"Attempting to use the New Cross fire Inquest to discredit what the New Cross Massacre Action Committee had said about the fire and to accuse young people who had been at the party of causing the fire. Seeking to avoid inconvenient information and evidence about a firebomb or other incendiary device introduced into the building from outside as the cause of the fire."

This inquest did not open very auspiciously. Armza Ruddock, the owner of the house lost two of her children in the fire. She was refused legal aid by the Legal Services Commission so that she could be legally represented at this new Inquest. Not content to let the law take its course in a Judicial review, retired Judge Gerald butler QC, sitting as coroner at London Crown Court, referred the refusal of legal aid to the Department for Constitutional Affairs. This is a first in legal history. Who knows who or what constitutes the Department of Constitutional Affairs?

Judge Gerald Butler has already indicated that he is on the side of the police. He ruled that the Stockwell report would not be disclosed. This was a report of the police investigation into how the New Cross Fire started, sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The police and their lawyers clearly have something to hide. That is why they are arguing that the contents of the report should not be disclosed.

So when Judge Gerald Butler QC said he did not believe it contained any relevant information and was a compendium of rumour and speculation, we have to ask, if that was the case, why was it sent to the DPP in the first place, and why is the judge afraid to make public this so- called compendium of rumour and speculation.

If Judge Butler, the police and their lawyers have nothing to hide, then the Stockwell report must be made public. It must not be swept under the carpet, suppressed and kept hidden. Black people would like to know what is in the police report given to the DPP when police were blaming a single individual for starting the New Cross fire.

Given the history of police duplicity into the causes of the New Cross Fire, I am doubtful that the truth will be told at this new Inquest. Judge Gerald Butler has already indicated that he is engaged in process of suppressing evidence collected earlier. So anyone who thinks that this new Inquest is not also part of the process of deception designed to prove the police theory that this was not a racist attack should better think again.

The Black community has been active in trying to arrive at the truth about the New Cross Massacre for 23 years. "There was an immediate response from the Black community in the Lewisham area and in the New Cross and Deptford area in particular and across Britain… This took the form of a series of mass meetings and demonstrations in the area," according to the 20th anniversary statement of the NMAC.

"One meeting at Pagnell Street Community centre (formerly known as the Moonshot Club), held on the Sunday following the fire, was attended by 1,000 people. And from that meeting there was a demonstration to 439 New Cross road, where the racist firebomb had killed the young Black people. The demonstration blocked the A" road for several hours, and was reported on radio while it took place.

"Starting from just 48 hours after the fire, the newly-formed New Cross Massacre Action Committee organised a weekly series of meetings in New Cross which became known as the Black People's Assembly.

"It was the Black People's Assembly which decided on holding a Black People's Day of Action on a working day on Monday 2nd April 1981, and then planned a campaign of support for a demonstration that day. It also worked to uncover information about the causes of the fire, to force the police to investigate it properly, and to build humanitarian support for the families of the dead youngsters and for the injured mentally scarred survivors.

"The Black People's Day of Action, organised by the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, saw the biggest mobilisation of Black people ever seen in Britain. 20,000 Black peo9ple and their supporters marched over a period of eight hours from New Cross through Peckham, Elephant and castle, across Blackfriars Bridge, into Fleet Street, Regent Street, then Cavendish street and finally into Hyde Park.

"Some of the placards and chanted slogans are self-evident in their meaning: 'Thirteen Dead and Nothing said', 'End Racist Attacks Now', 'We demand Justice', 'No police Cover-Up', 'Blood Ah Go Run If Justice No Come'.

"The New Cross Fire Fund which was established b the New Cross Massacre Action Committee raised £27,000, a very significant sum in 1981, to help the families of the fire victim, to cover the cost of their funerals and some other expenses.

"The money was mostly contributed by ordinary people including Black people in prison and young people and others organising spontaneous collection in schools, workplaces and in the streets. All the money collected went to the families."

With this record, the Black community will not stand for another cover up that is planned by the police and judge Gerald Butler. We want to know the truth. We want to know why the police ruled out a racist attack even before they started their investigation. We want to know the contents of the Stockwell report. We want justice. Pictures

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For peace in Iraq, withdraw all occupation forces:

An African Response to Menzies Campbell

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Shadow Foreign Secretary


By Lester Lewis


Menzies Campbell is the Liberal Democrat deputy leader and Shadow Foreign Secretary. Writing in the Independent on Wednesday 7 April, he concluded, "For the moment, there is no alternative to the occupation of Iraq." This phrase seems to be a mantra adopted by all British and American commentators. But there is an alternative.


The alternative is that All Occupation Military Forces be immediately withdrawn from Iraq. This means that troops from the two principal invading countries, the USA and its Junior Partner Britain must be immediately withdrawn. It means that troops from countries pressurised into joining the occupation - Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Japan, El Salvador, South Korea, Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, Thailand and Lithuania - must all be immediately withdrawn.


Another mantra constructed by Euro-American propagandists is that Iraq will slide into civil war if the occupation forces are withdrawn. The opposite appears to be the case. All sectors of Iraqi Society apart from the Kurds are uniting to do battle with the common enemy, the occupation forces.


The mainly European forces have been involved in an orgy of killing in Iraq. Americans have been killing Iraqis in extremely large numbers. The British have been killing Iraqis. Italians have been killing Iraqis. Poles have been killing Iraqis. Spaniards have been killing Iraqis. Portuguese have been killing Iraqis. Ukrainians have been killing Iraqis. What for? So that America and Britain can reap the spoils of the occupation of Iraq. It’s the old European saying, "To the victor the spoils."


With the Iraq Resistance Movement dealing hammer blows to US occupation forces, the Americans resorted to sheer terror in Fallujah. The Americans even bombed a mosque, killing 45 women and children.


In the battle in and around Fallujah, the Americans claimed they were seeking to arrest members of the Iraqi Resistance Movement who had killed and humiliated four Americans the previous week. In the process, the Americans killed between 600 and 1000 Iraqis including men, women, children and babies. The horror photos of dead babies shown on Al Jazeera rebut the American lie that all those killed in Fallujah "were rebels."


Even the Iraqi Governing Council, hand picked by the Americans, was forced to protest, accusing the Americans of committing "crimes against humanity" for imposing collective punishment on the people of Fallujah. The resistance Fighters of Fallujah bathed themselves in glory. Their heroism will stand for all time as a symbol of their determination and courage in the face of superior arms, munitions and trained men.


When the Americans attacked Libya in 1986, Muamar al Ghadafi told them, "You can annihilate us but you can not defeat us." Realising the folly of its wanton brutality in its orgy of killing in Fallujah, the US came to realise that while it had the planes, helicopters, bombs, armoured personal carriers, mortars, heavy guns etc to annihilate Fallujah, it could not defeat the Resistance Fighters. Consequently, it began to sue for peace in Fallujah.


The US demanded that those who killed the four Americans be handed over to them. What about American soldiers who have committed "crimes against humanity in Fallujah? To whom are they to be handed over? A crime against humanity has "no statute of limitation." This Iraqi adventure has exposed America as a declining power. As its power declines, so can those who commit crimes against humanity be brought to justice?


Africa and the Africans must be grateful to the Iraqi Resistance Fighters for the hammer blows they have struck against US occupation forces. For make no mistake, with America trying to control he world under the Project for the new American Century (PNAC), Africa would have been next. That is where most of the wealth of the world lies, in African soil.


Africa can cause greater disruption to the PNAC by ensuring that America does not successfully complete its plan to put a "military girdle around Africa." With the setting up of a Pan African Military Force under the auspices of the African Union, Africa must implement the policy of "no foreign military forces on African soil."


What has become clear to Iraqis is that the occupation of their country falsely premised on a bogus search for Weapons of Mass Destruction is nothing but naked colonisation. About this, Menzies Campbell is clear. He wants the US to hand power to an Iraqi government that will invite "coalition forces" to remain in Iraq.


It means of course, that with the spreading of the Resistance, such a government would not be able to govern Iraq. They would only be able to so if they are defended by massive American military power, making them nothing but American puppets. But surely, this is a pipe dream.


The Americans first claimed that resistance to their occupation was by remnants of Sadam Hussein's regime. Then they blamed international terrorists. Now it claims that only a handful of Iraqis are resisting them. For example, General Sanchez, America's top General in Iraq blamed the resistance on "a small group of criminal thugs." But an analysis of the Resistance shows that the Iraqis are fighting the Americans on many fronts.


There are the Shia Militias in the South. Armed resistance is coming from young male villagers across the Sunni belt. There is the Sunni resistance in Fallujah. Moqtada al-Sadr's Medi Army is resisting occupation in many areas in the South. Then there is the ongoing resistance around Baghdad which now seems to be better organised and better targeted, destroying American convoys at will.


In response to the killing of four Americans in Fallujah, US General Mark Kimmit promised an "overwhelming response." This has turned into a propaganda debacle. The heroism of the Fallujah Resistance Fighters has led to more and more Iraqis joining the Resistance and taking up arms against the Americans.


When Sunni Moslems were under attack in Fallujah, Shia Moslems in Sadr City in Baghdad were donating blood, collecting food and medical supplies for their fellow Iraqis in Fallujah. American forces broke into the compound of a mosque and deliberately destroyed the supplies.


The arrogance of these colonial occupiers knows no bounds. What is becoming clear is that most sections of Iraqi society are uniting in a common fight to expel the Americans from their country.


British Prime Minister Tony Blair calls the occupation and colonisation of Iraq a "struggle for freedom, tolerance, sovereignty, prosperity and human rights." Like all colonialists and imperialists, he turns the truth on is head, claiming that the resistance "stand for dictatorship, terrorism, fundamentalism, injustice and chaos." He views defeat for the colonial occupation forces as representing "defeat for democracy and civilisation."


But Blair is an uncivilised barbarian and a willing tool of the Zionist entity that constructed he PNAC. Former Cabinet Minister Robin Cook revealed that Blair and Bush had discussed the invasion and occupation of Iraq two weeks after the attack on the world trade centre in New York. In that attack, 2800 people died. Since then, the Americans have killed over 50,000 people in response. As someone once said, "Caucasians like killing people."


Blair's reputation had already been seriously damaged for lying to the British people about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Now, less than half the British people believe anything he says. When he became Prime Minister, the Labour Party had over 400,000 members. Now, its membership has fallen to just over 200,000, the lowest it has been for 50 years. Labour loyalists are expecting a hammering in the June elections to the European Parliament.


With the coalition occupation forces facing defeat in Iraq, Blair's reputation will suffer further damage. By attacking US and other occupation forces over the entire area of Iraq, US occupation forces are being pulled apart and stretched. When the elastic finally steps, they will cut and run despite the bluster and bravado of Bush and Blair claiming that hey "will stay the course."


Moqtada al-Sadr's Army of the Mehdi has shown that that they are not afraid to confront the Americans militarily. Iraqi police trained by the Americans have refused to fight their fellow Iraqis. The majority of the 200,000 strong Iraqi army trained by the Americans have also refused to fight. Many have joined the Resistance. This does not augur well for the Iraqi Governing Council or any entity to which the Americans hand over.


Any group to which the Americans cede power will find it exceedingly difficult to invite the American military to stay in Iraq. Such a prospect just means that the Resistance Struggles will go on and on since the majority of Iraqis see the Americans as colonial occupiers. Their view that the Americans are primarily interested in Iraq's oil wealth and giving $billions in reconstruction contracts to American multi-national companies.


Talk of handing over to the United Nations is equally problematic. Under American enforced UN sanctions, over 1,000,000 Iraqis died prior to the illegal invasion and occupation. Bush and Blair failed to get a UN resolution to justify their illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Then, the UN retrospectively legalised the invasion and occupation.


Should the UN try to take over from the US and invite American forces to stay in Iraq, surely the Iraqi resistance Movement will drive the UN out again. The UN is not neutral; it is being used as an instrument of American policy not only in Iraq, but world-wide. UN Secretary General Kofi Anan is widely regarded as an American civil servant.


So the Bush-Blair plan to hand control to the UN without giving the UN control over the occupation forces is a non-starter since that way, the US still exercises political and military control over Iraq.


The UN is seen as an enemy of democracy in Iraq. Shia cleric Ayatollah Sustani on whom the Americans depend for support said, "A new Iraqi government must emerge through elections." The Americans said no. The UN then betrayed the Iraqis by also saying no to elections. Most Iraqis have arrived at the conclusion that the UN is "pro US and anti-Iraqi" as Salim Lone wrote.


According to Lone, a former UN Director of Communications in Iraq, US colomial Governor Paul Bremner has manoeuvred "to limit the Iraqis' freedom to adopt a democratically agreed constitution. The reality for the Iraqis under colonial occupation is "impoverishment, insecurity, dis-enfranchisement and suspicion."


So before many more thousands of Iraqi men, women, children and babies are slaughtered by the US, the best thing is for the occupation forces to pull out of Iraq, to leave the Iraqis to sort out their internal problems with the help of the Arab League and the African Union.


His Excellency Alpha Omar Konare, the Head of the African Union, must put forward a broad and bold plan to bring peace to Iraq, based on the immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces. As the Holy Bible states, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the earth."



IRAQ EXPOSES THE VIOLENCE AT
THE HEART AMERICAN-BRIRISH CULTURE


By Lester Lewis

07 05 04 Weekly Column FOR African Voice (London)

In his book The Ice Man Inheritance, Michael Bradley wrote, "the Caucasian male is sexist, racist, violent, oppressive and exploitative because of the conditions they lived under during the ice ages." Africans who were forcibly enslaved against their will in the Caribbean and the Americas from the 15th to the 18th centuries felt the full force of the violence, racism, sexism, oppression and exploitation of the Caucasian Euro-Americans.
Now, the revelations about British and American violence against the Iraqis has once again exposed the brutal violence at the heart of British and American culture. That is why protestations on the part of American President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that they are not like that and the violence is abnormal can be said to be "crocodile tears" meant for public relations purposes only.
The history of wanton violence for economic gain is demonstrated no only by the violent forced enslavement of Africans, it is demonstrated by the wars of genocide fought by he British against the American Indians. They were slaughtered, their lands stolen and those who survived put on Reservations.
It is demonstrated by the genocide in Tasmania where the British killed every native Tasmanian. Their land is now occupied by British descendants. In Australia, the Black population was reduced from 4,500,000 to 500,000. They are now second class citizens in their own land.
In Africa, settler colonialism and colonialism were enforced by the most brutal wars that led to the deaths of millions of Africans. King Leopold of Belgium slaughtered 10,000,000 Africans so that he could use the vast wealth forcibly extracted from the Congo to build up he Belgian economy. He is regarded as a hero.
In South America, most of the peoples and nations who lived along the banks of the Amazon and other rivers were exterminated. They no longer exist. In the Caribbean, the Arawaks were exterminated. The native Calinagoes called Caribs were reduced to small pockets in most of the Islands.
All that violence was for the economic gain of Europe. That is how Europe became rich, at the expense of the slaughter of millions of peoples around the world. This is the nature of the violence that we are seeing in Iraq today. Spurned on by Jews and Zionists, American President George Bush began to implement the Project For The New American Century. Under this PNAC, America set out to dominate the world, using its military might. It was joined by its mother, Britain.
The attack on New York in 2001 was the cover for the invasion of Afghanistan. The real purpose was to secure that country so that a pipeline carrying oil could run across Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean for he benefit of the American economy. The illegal invasion and occupation was, as Nelson Mandela said at the time, "to steal Iraq's oil."
The alleged reason for the illegal occupation of Iraq was Sadam Hussein's possession of Weapons of Mass destruction. The WMD excuse has shown up to be a concoction. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been wantonly slaughtered in this attempt to ensure that America and Britain will reap the economic benefits of Iraq's vast oil riches.
One can only understand the nature of the bestial violence in Iraq if one understands the concept of good and evil. If a people are evil, then they can be slaughtered, their wealth stolen, their women raped and their men sodomised since the good is exterminating evil. Thus the British and the Americans posit themselves as good while Sadam Hussein and he Iraqis are seen as evil.
But the American defeat at Falujah has demonstrated that the good, the Iraqis has triumphed over the evil Americans and British. The alleged reason or the American attack on Falujah was the killing of four Americans. In response, the Americans unleashed indiscriminate violence and destruction against the citizens of Falujah, killing over 1,000 Iraqis, mainly the elderly, women, children and babies. Then Bush talks about justice.
American injustice in Falujah has been exposed and laid bare for all the world to see. Since the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001 when the myth of American invincibility was brutally exposed, America has been a declining power. Evidence of systematic torture, violent and sexual abuse of Iraqis arrested for resisting the illegal occupation of their country will increase the rate at which American power and influence declines.
American plans to put a military girdle around Africa must be fiercely resisted. America has only one interest in Africa, that is o steal Africa's vast oil, agricultural and mineral wealth. American and European sanctions against Zimbabwe is a demonstration that they are determined that Africans must not enjoy the wealth of Africa. For them as the good, they must enjoy the wealth of Africa while Africans who are seen as racially inferior must continue to suffer deprivations.
Britain and America are demonstrating and loudly trumpeting their racial superiority to the Iraqis with their illegal occupation of that country. Thus, an American civil servant is put up as ruler of Iraq enforced by American military power. The Americans have determined that they will impose a Euro-American version of democracy in Iraq. But as we have seen, Euro-American democracy is the rule of minority cliques as demonstrated in America.
Bush got a lesser number of votes than his presidential opponent Al Gore but he ended up being President of America. In Britain, 24 per cent of the total electorate voted for Tony Blair's Labour Party. Yet, here is Blair taking Britain to war in Iraq against the wishes of the majority of people in Britain.
The Americans have determined that Iraq shall develop a "Free Market Economy." So Iraq's publicly owned industries are to be sold off cheaply to European and American companies. With the wanton destruction of Iraqi infrastructure, American companies have been awarded reconstruction contracts worth $Billions to be paid for out of Iraqi oil money. Most of these companies are tied in one way or another to American Vice President Dick Cheyney.
With pictures showing the sadistic violence meted out to Iraqi prisoners, the world has seen what happens to those who resist those who perceive themselves as racially superior. The British newspaper, the Daily Mirror is being accused of publishing faked pictures of British brutality in Iraq. It is quite possible that the Mirror could have been set up by British intelligence. After all, they were aware of the report written by American Major General Antonio M Taguba.
Taguba's reported stated, "Between October and December 2003, there were multiple incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses in the prison carried out by soldiers of the 372nd military police company, and also by members of the intelligence community. But why restrict the period of investigation to three months? Are the Americans saying that there was no "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" during the other months of their occupation? Not according to Amnesty International.
From the summer months of 2003, Amnesty International has ben complaining about the abuse of prisoners, of the torture and killing of prisoners. In November 2003, it made allegations of violence and sexual abuse. So the feigned surprise of Bush and Blair is contrived.
The allegations that American soldiers have sodomised male Iraqi prisoners, sometimes with objects should not come as a surprise. After all, eight New York policemen were convicted of sodomising a West African male with a broom handle. So sodomisation of others who are seen to be racially inferior is part of the heart of American culture.
These crimes committed against Iraqi prisoners are war crimes and crimes against humanity. Will the International Criminal Court take action against Bush and Blair and all the minions under them? We will have to wait and see.
America has been scouring the world forcing smaller and weaker nations to sign agreements that they will not hand over American personnel who have committed crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court. If nothing else, that is a clear indication that they had the intention to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity without the possibility of being sanctioned or the culprits appearing before the International Criminal Court.
As far as this writer is aware, only President Yahyeh Jammeh of Gambia voluntarily signed such an agreement with the USA. Under duress, President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo was forced to sign such an agreement. This was after over 4,500,000 Congolese had been wantonly slaughtered in the proxy war fought on behalf of America by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
To put an end to the illegal occupation of Iraq with its accompanying "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses," Africa must play the role of peacemaker. The time has come for the African Union to begin to punch its weight in international affairs. The AU must put forward a comprehensive plan for peace in Iraq that involves the immediate withdrawal of occupying American and British troops.
Such a plan must include Reparations for Iraq as a country and or all the individual Iraqis and their families who have suffered as a result of the illegal occupation of Iraq. If Britain and America are allowed to get away with the war crimes and crimes against humanity they have committed in Iraq, then they will visit this on Africa and he Africans again.

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