Orinoco Tribune - Chairman Omali Yeshitela Condemns US Repression & Exposes False Russian Connection
Channel: Orinoco Tribune
Date: 06/06/2023

Caracas, June 5, 2023 (OrinocoTribune.com)—Last Thursday, Orinoco Tribune conducted an interview with the Chairman of the African People Socialist Party (APSP), Omali Yeshitela, and APSP Director Akilé Anai about the status of the current intimidation judicial attack against the party and the Uhuru Movement. From Venezuela, we see this attack as another example of the US's characteristic repression that smothers the rights of not only the US black community but also all oppressed people throughout the Global South in a clear attempt to break solidarity bonds between anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and ultimately anti-capitalist forces around the world.

The interview was performed by Orinoco Tribune staff journalists Lee Arts and Kelley Zhou as a follow-up of a previous interview conducted in February when charges were not yet filed against the "Uhuru 3," Chairman Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Solidarity Committee Chairwoman Penny Hess,  and Jesse Neville, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. US courts have since dropped the charges against Akilé Anai, who had initially been targeted, changing the indictments from against the "Uhuru 4" to currently only the three aforementioned members.

"I was greeted by an armored vehicle and military forces dressed in camouflage and flight jackets who were carrying military assault weapons. Mounted on the armored truck were laser sighting devices with lights hitting my chest, indicating a capacity to kill me," Chairman Yeshitela explained, detailing the abusive exercise of force displayed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when his house was raided almost a year ago.

Chronicling the beginning of his fight against anti-black segregation and racism, which eventually led to the creation of the APSP and the Uhuru movement back in the '60s, Yeshitela explained that he and his comrades initially thought that demonstrations would show "what was happening, politicians and authorities would get it straight. But when we demonstrated to show them what was happening, they put us in jail. It was through this process that we were forced to understand that it was not ignorance, but it was systemic," in reference to the racism they were dealing with.

"As a consequence of becoming subjects of colonialism and slaves in the US, we were forcibly dispossessed of our freedom, power, and dignity. In this country and throughout the world, that's a totally different position than those that are working to reform, trying to make the system comfortable, and trying to find a way where a system reborn through genocide, slavery, and colonialism can be redeemed. We are clear that the existing racist system cannot be redeemed. It is inherently exploitative, wreaking havoc, death, and destruction throughout the world," Yeshitela summarized.

Yeshitela then was asked why Venezuela is also under attack, referencing APSP's struggle on an international scale. He clearly connected it to the US internal oppression, responding with the following:

The US and other colonial powers want to negate the independence of Venezuela—a Venezuela that feeds, clothes, and houses itself in opposition to corporations and US sanctions. I know the Venezuelan government hasn't said this but I'm convinced that the US killed Hugo Chavez just as they killed Lumumba, Kwame Toure, and Nkruma. None were characterized as murder. The whole struggle against colonialism, against the colonial mode of production, unleashed a desperate, frenzied attack on us by the US government trying to keep history from happening, trying to go back to the past: pre-Hugo Chavez, pre-Malcolm, pre-Black Panther Party, pre-revolutionary struggle... This is not a contest between the US government and the APSP. It's a battle between the US and African people in this country and globally. They want to frame it like it has something to do with us and the Russians, but what they really want is black people back on the backseats of the buses. They want black people back in the fields not being paid, and being wiped out without any kind of complaint.

On the allegations about a "Russian connection" as the excuse for the attacks against them, Yeshitela said that the "Russian agent" accusation is "crazy, and anybody can see that. History knows better than that. It's a charge used against others before us: Paul Robeson and W.E.B DuBois, who co-founded the NAACP, were attacked on those same charges. One charge is a conspiracy, claiming we're working with the Russians. We were Russian agents, according to them, and we conspired with Russians to embarrass the US," suggesting that the real embarrassment are the atrocities the US commits against its own people.

In addition to the video that you can watch above, we provide below an edited transcript of the interview with Chairman Omali Yeshitela and Director Akilé Anai. The HandsOffUhuru campaign is currently active, requiring both monetary support and also support in the form of actions of...