Uhuru Movement
The Uhuru Movement (Pronounced is the Swahili word for "freedom") is a socialist and African internationalist movement founded in 1972 and led by the African People's Socialist Party (APSP), whose chairman is Omali Yeshitela. It is centered on the theory of African internationalism, which it says provides a historical materialist explanation for the social and economic conditions of African people worldwide and is considered to be one of the most important political movements since independence. The APSP has formed several organizations, each with specific tasks and purpose. Affiliated organizations include The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement  (InPDUM), African Socialist International (ASI), UhuruNews.com, African People's Solidarity Committee (APSC), Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM), Burning Spear Productions, Uhuru Foods, Uhuru Furniture, All African People's Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP), and African People's Education and Defense Foundation (APEDF). Political views and history. The Uhuru Movement's political theory is African internationalism, which states that capitalism was born parasitic through the attack on Africa and its people. African Internationalism holds that capitalism is imperialism developed to its highest stage, not the other way around, as theorized by Vladimir Lenin. This belief derives from Karl Marx's 1867 book  , in which Marx wrote of the condition essential to the emergence of capitalism which he called the "primitive accumulation" of capital. African Internationalism is not a static theory that only refers to past conditions, it refers also to the conditions that African people are faced with today. It refers to African people who live inside what it views as imperialist centers, such as the United States and Europe, as an "internal (or domestic) colony". The Movement has called for the release of all African prisoners in U.S. prisons, described as "concentration camps", and has described U.S. police forces as an  illegitimate standing army. They have called for the withdrawal of police forces from exploited and oppressed African American communities. In the 1990s, tensions between the police in St. Petersburg, Florida and the Uhuru Movement were high. Members of the Uhuru Movement frequently protested against the police's treatment of African Americans, usually after the murders of African Americans by police. On October 25, 1996, violence erupted after a white police officer shot and killed a young black man driving a stolen car. Cars and buildings were torched, protestors shouted, and rocks, along with other items, were tossed at the police  officers at the scene of the shooting. At least 20 protestors were arrested. The next day, a large group of Uhuru members went back to the scene and called for the release of the arrested protestors. Sobukwe Bambaata, one of the Uhuru members, stated that the rioting would have never occurred "if the police did not come into our community and treat us like dogs." Although violence broke out in 1996, most of the protests organized by the movement remained peaceful. Areas of work. The Uhuru Movement is a collective of organizations and institutions that were formed by the African  People's Socialist Party. Each organization was created to deal with specific issues related to the conditions faced by African people under colonialism: Controversy and criticism. In 2004, Uhuru Movement's leader Omali Yeshitela tore down a Halloween display in St. Petersburg, Florida which depicted "a stuffed figure hung by the neck on a homemade gallows". Subsequent opinions and letters to the "St. Petersburg Times" regarding the incident were critical of both the Uhuru Movement and Yeshitela's conduct. The Uhuru Movement came to national attention during the 2008 Presidential campaign season when they interrupted Barack Obama at a town  hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida, and questioned the candidate with the question, "What about the black community?" alleging that he was not speaking out for Africans on issues such as police brutality, high unemployment, predatory lending, and Hurricane Katrina. The group was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for engaging in demonstrations on January 3, 2009 in St. Petersburg, Florida which the ADL claims encouraged anti-Israel and anti-Zionist rallies. In 2009, the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement organized a march in support of Lovelle Mixon and against the Oakland Police. Mixon, an Oakland, California resident, had  been accused of killing four Oakland police officers and died during a shootout after a traffic stop, coincidentally just blocks away from the local Uhuru headquarters. At the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, the General Students' Committee (AStA) broke apart in April 2015 as a consequence of internal dispute over purported antisemitism after having organized an Information event about the Uhuru Movement on JGU campus in January. The AStA distanced itself both from the Uhuru Movement, African People's Socialist Party and its leader Omali Yeshitela stating that "the struggle against racism and the consequences of colonialism should not  blind us to other reactionary ideologies" and regretted providing a platform for this movement.