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Claudia Jones: African-Caribbean Communist defied racism, sexism and class oppression
February 23, 2013
“Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment” (2011) is a collection of writings by Jones herself. The book makes a tremendous contribution to the literature on left, feminist and Pan-African struggles during the 20th century. A new generation of activists and organizers will benefit immensely from Jones’ writings on the most pressing and burning issues of the period.
The 2020 vision for Buy Black Wednesdays
September 11, 2012
The day is Buy Black Wednesday. I am setting foot in the Pan Afrikan Market Place called Little Nubia, modeled after Harlem in its “hey day,” old Timbuktu and Black Wall Street. So there are over 600 Black businesses in a 10-square-block area. Red, black and green is everywhere. Flags from every Afrikan nation flutter in the summer breeze.
‘Panther Baby’
June 22, 2012
Jamal Joseph’s “Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention” is a story of love, revolution, rage and redemption. Joseph’s brilliant, honest, insightful narrative of his coming of age in New York City in the late 1960s at the height of the Black Power movement is so riveting that I had a hard time putting it down, even to sleep. And when I did, it invaded my dreams.”
Wanda’s Picks for April 2012
April 4, 2012
The Oakland International Film Festival is Friday-Sunday, April 6-8, at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Street, Oakland. Visit http://www.oiff.org/2012schedule.pdf. This year’s headliner is one of the most controversial independent films ever made, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door.” Watch it again here.
Japan’s ‘Throwaway People’ and the fallout from Fukushima
March 30, 2012
Japan of old did not have a captive Black population to use and abuse. So the Burakumin were created to fill that economic and social vacuum at the bottom of society. They are still there, a permanent “untouchable” class, cleaning up Fukushima.
Malcolm X (5/19/25-2/21/65): Eulogy by Ossie Davis
February 21, 2012
Malcolm was our manhood, our living, Black manhood! This was his meaning to his people. Consigning these mortal remains to earth, the common mother of all, secure in the knowledge that what we place in the ground is no more now a man but a seed which, after the winter of our discontent, will come forth again to meet us. And we will know him then for what he was and is. A prince. Our own Black shining prince who didn’t hesitate to die because he loved us so.
Occupy the Hood’s national effort coordinated by Ife Johari Uhuru, Detroit single mom
November 22, 2011
“I think that we’ve decided that the twinkling fingers and all of that may not be for us,” said Uhuru. “We remain in solidarity. But we want to be able to speak and then act autonomously and really get involved in grassroots causes.”
The road from Attica
September 9, 2011
Sept. 9 marks 40 years since the uprising at Attica State Prison in upstate New York and the deadly and sadistic retaking of the prison – and mass torture of hundreds of prisoners all the rest of the day and night and beyond – by state police and prison guards on the morning of Sept. 13, 1971. Attica and its aftermath exposed the powder kegs ready to explode inside the U.S. prisons.
From Harlem to the United Nations: Hands off Africa and Africans worldwide!
August 17, 2011
Thousands of people stood in unity at the Millions March in Harlem on Malcolm X Boulevard and 110th Street in Harlem, New York, on Saturday, Aug.13, to make the demand, “U.S. / NATO HANDS OFF AFRICA AND HANDS OFF AFRICAN PEOPLE!”
The People’s Lawyer: an interview wit’ Lynne Stewart
August 16, 2011
Lynne Stewart is one of the legendary activist lawyers of our time and also one of the many political prisoners of our time, who was incarcerated because her style of lawyering was called aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, by one of the biggest terrorist organizations ever known to humanity: the United States government.
Strike updates: Stop prison torture at Pelican Bay
July 12, 2011
Support for the hunger strike grows with solidarity actions across the U.S. and Canada this past weekend.
A series of noise demonstrations outside jails, detention centers and prisons occurred internationally in St. Louis, New York City, Oakland, Los Angeles, Montreal and Kitchener, Ontario.
Rethinking Malcolm: What was Marable thinking?
July 8, 2011
The new book by Manning Marable, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” will help us to get a deeper understanding of Malcolm X and the times we’re living in now. This will not be a direct result of what Marable has done, but rather of what needs to happen now because of what he has done.
McKinney human rights fact-finders show Libyan deaths, injuries not ‘propaganda’
June 9, 2011
In the CIA kick-started war on Libya, The New York Times report Monday by John F. Burns, calling Libyan civilian casualties “propaganda,” does not square with a series of WBAIX in-hospital interviews.
Malcolm and the music
May 19, 2011
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), born 86 years ago on May 19, 1925, was loved by the oppressed and hated by the oppressors. Our “Black Shining Prince,” in the words of Ossie Davis, aimed to “use whatever means necessary to bring about a society in which the 22 million Afro-Americans are recognized and respected as human beings.” His influence is immeasurable – from music to foreign policy to religion. Today Islam, followed then by very few, is the second largest religion in the United States and Canada.
Black and Brown workers protest White contractor in Harlem
May 14, 2011
West Harlem streets around City College of New York were suddenly filled with angry workers’ chants on May 10: Black and Latino construction workers protesting the construction of City College’s new dormitory by a White-owned firm, while legitimate Harlem-based Black and Latino contractors were not hired, a pattern City College has followed for 30 years. Read how Harlem Fightback! and other coalitions have fought and are once again fighting back.
Wanda’s Picks for May 2011
May 4, 2011
Happy Mother’s Day to Yuri Kochiyama! I’d like to also wish the women who haven’t seen their children in a long time, some since birth, a special Happy Mother’s Day. Our prayers are with you even if you feel alone at a time when in America prisons systematically separate mothers from their children, often permanently.
The day the music died: Malcolm X’ assassination, Feb. 21, 1965
February 18, 2011
On the afternoon of Feb. 21, 1965, I went to the Audubon Ballroom to hear Malcolm X speak. It was the saddest day of my life. An update has been added to this story, originally published in 2009.
50 years after Lumumba: The burden of history
January 25, 2011
It wasn’t just Patrice Lumumba his assassins wanted to kill, it was the genuine self-determination, dreams and aspirations of African people, writes Horace Campbell, reflecting on the murder of the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Jan. 17, 1961. Two poems by Lumumba follow the story.
Wet paint: an interview with visual artist Sophia Dawson
January 11, 2011
Sophia Dawson is an artist I met in Harlem, New York, at this year’s Black Panther Film Fest, where she had a striking painted piece of Black Panther co-founder and Chairman Bobby Seale. I have seen a lot of dope, conscious-minded Black visual artists over the years; she is definitely one of the more talented ones.
Blacks, prison and joblessness
November 24, 2010
“This system treats us like throw-away people,” says Carolyn Brown, a Seattle volunteer with prison reform group Justice Works! An African American with a record, her effort to find a job is deeply frustrating due to systemic racism.