Garifuna

Garifuna National News:* "Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Women’s Constitutional Assembly" (2011-07) [link]
* "Observations on the State of Indigenous Human Rights in Light of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in HONDURAS" (2010-04) [link]

"A mandate for a Garifuna nation"
2014-04-16 by Wellington C. Ramos, posted at [http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/svg.php?news_id=20751&start=0&category_id=15]:
Born in Dangriga Town, the cultural capital of Belize, Wellington Ramos has BAs in Political Science and History from Hunter College, NY, and an MA in Urban Studies from Long Island University. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science and History

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On the 11th, 12th and 13th of April 2014, Garifuna people from the countries of “Yurumein”, now known as St Vincent and the Grenadines, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize and the United States, came in large numbers for the first Garifuna Nation Summit. The purposes of this summit was to receive a mandate from the Garifuna people to form a Garifuna Nation, to receive updates on the state of affairs in the communities where the Garifuna people live worldwide, to establish a framework for the Garinagu people to work in concert with each other on a daily basis and to have the structures and institutions in place to help solve their problems.
Prior to this summit, invitations were sent to all the government representatives in the countries mentioned above and only two countries responded and they were Belize and Yurumein St Vincent and The Grenadines. Representing St Vincent and the Grenadines were two Garifuna representatives: Honourable Senator Jomo Thomas, a Garifuna as well, and Honourary Consul Cardin Gil, representative for St Vincent and the Grenadines for the City of Los Angeles, CA.
The first event was the “Welcome Reception”, which was held at “Casa Yurumein” in the Bronx and the host was Ms Mirtha Colon, a Garifuna activist and president of the Hondurenos Contra El Sida organization in New York City. The representatives of the Garifuna Nation began the ceremony by outlining their purpose, goals and objectives and then after that was concluded they welcomed their brother Senator Jomo Thomas to his family.
When Senator Jomo Thomas began speaking one could see the impressions of amazement in his face and the emotions coming from him to see his people. He spoke about the concern his government has for the Garifuna people in this Diaspora, the efforts they are making to seek justice for the genocide committed against our people and a renewed effort by his government to grant citizenship status to all his Garifuna people who reside in the Diaspora countries mentioned earlier. The representatives of the Garifuna Nation and our Garifuna people listened carefully to what the senator had to say.
After the senator concluded his remarks, I responded, being the current director of governmental affairs and associate president for the United States for the Garifuna Nation. I told the senator that a letter was written to his prime minister in March of last year on behalf of the United Garifuna Association Inc. stating our position on reparations and to date we have not received any response. He replied by saying that his government was in communication with an individual who they thought was representing all the Garifuna people from the United States but now with his presence in New York City, he has come to the conclusion that such is not the case and he will inform his prime minister.
The summit continued on Saturday and the following representatives arrived: Belize’s Ambassador to the United Nations Her Excellency Lois Young, Assemblyman Pichardo, Senator Rivera, City Councilwoman Carmen Arroyo and a representative from Councilman Andrew King’s office.
The Belizean Ambassador Her Excellency Lois Young spoke about the vital role that the Garifuna people play in the development of her country Belize. She also named some prominent Garifuna individuals who have served in the government of Belize and have contributed in other areas, such as Dr Theodore Aranda, a former leader of the United Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic Party and a minister of health in the People’s United Party administration; Russell “Chiste” Garcia, a former minister of agriculture and fisheries; Sylvia Flores, minister of defence and human development in the People’s United Party administration; Michelle Arana, a current Supreme Court judge; Andy Palacio, a Belizean musicial icon now deceased; Pen Cayetano, a musician and artist, the founder of the Garifuna music now know as Punta Rock; Anthony “Garincha” Adderlly, a footballer; Nathaniel Cacho, a former financial executive with the World Bank at the United Nations; Sherman Zuniga, Commissioner of Police, and other individuals. All the other elected representatives were given the opportunity to say a few words to the audience.
On Sunday, the summit continued with the history of the Garifuna people’s trials and tribulations by a famous Garifuna anthropologist, Dr Joseph Palacio. His presentation was about how the Garifuna people came about, their struggles, the current situation they face today in the countries where they live and what are some of the possible solutions to some of their problems moving forward towards nationhood. While Dr Palacio was speaking, the Garifuna people were paying attention and taking notes. Some of the information he was relaying to his Garifuna people was new to them. They were all impressed with his in-depth knowledge of his people’s history.
He was followed by a Garifuna activist, Bernardo Guerrero, from Lemun, Honduras. Activist Guerrero spoke about the struggles his people are currently going through in the country of Honduras to maintain possession of their lands. He stressed that the Garifuna Nation is the best thing for the Garifuna people worldwide because in every country where they live their basic human rights are being violated, especially when it comes to land issues.
From the time the Garifuna Nation leaders, namely, myself, Jorge Castillo, Ruben Reyes, Joseph Guerrero, Quisa Gonzalez, Sandra Colon, Carla Garcia, Thrish St Hill and Hubert Bailey started to lobby support for this movement, they decided to reach out to all the Garifuna organizations worldwide.
So far they have been successful in recruiting the following organizations: the United Garifuna Association Inc. of New York, The All People’s Foundation Inc. Chicago, IL, YUGACURE of New York, Hondureno Contra El Sida New York, Garifuna Hope Foundation Los Angeles, CA, The Chatoyer Project Los Angeles, CA, Organizacion Negra Guatemala (ONEGUA) Livingston and Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, Garifuna Cultural Day Mass Committee (GCDMC), Garinagu Lun Awanseruni Chicago Illinois, Hamalali Wayunagu Dance Company, Coalicion Social Garifuna Hondurenos En Texas Inc., Grupo Folklor Garifuna Wafagua, Organizaciones Patronales USA (OPUSA), Sociedad Hondurena Activa De New York, Mujeres Hondurenas Organizadas En New York (MHONY Inc.), HONGUA Seattle WA, Gemelos De Honduras, Comite De Defenza De Tierra Del Triunfo and Garifuna Heritage Center For The Arts and Culture Inc.
There are more organizations that registered to this organization during the summit and the information can be obtained by contacting the organization.
After activist Guerrero spoke, the Garifuna Nation summit continued and several motions were put forward and approved. They were:
1. To give the Garifuna Nation the mandate to go ahead with the establishment of a nation;
2. That the Garifuna Nation must form a committee effective immediately to accept sample symbols of a nation, such as a coat of arms, flag, national anthem, pledge, an animal, plant and other related national symbols;
3. The Garifuna Nation current executive body act as their representatives in carrying out all the functions that are required to become a nation; and
4. That the goals and objectives of the Garifuna Nation be carried out on the Garifuna people’s behalf.
The summit was then adjourned until April 2015 in Roatan, Honduras.
When the summit was concluded, the Garifuna people started to greet each other to discover how they are related and which family they belonged to, which is a custom of the Garifuna people when they gather together. The members of the Garifuna Nation, other organizations and the people who attended were extremely happy and delighted with the outcome of their first summit because now they are more than convinced that their people have given them the mandate to go full speed ahead with the accomplishment of a Garifuna Nation.
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Question from Vinci Vin:
Mr. Ramos: This is a quite interesting report and development. The participation and input of my compatriots: Jomo Thomas and Cadrin Gill are well-noted. However, my question is: What physical territory (land mass) has the committee identified for the establishment of this renewed nation? We all acknowledge that St. Vincent and the Grenadines, particularly the island of St. Vincent is the ancestral home of the Garifuna people. But the present SVG nation's constitution has no mention of entertaining a Garifuna nation within SVG or of replacing the present SVG nation that was established on October 27th 1979 with a Garifuna nation. So would this Garifuna nation of which you speak be a nation only in concept and not one possessing physical land space?
We know that Indian tribes in the USA occupy sovereign land masses in the USA called Reservations. But those reservations are quite different from the land that were set aside for the Caribs/Garifuna at Greiggs, Sandy Bay and Fancy on St. Vincent. At the moment, there are still "Crown Lands" in SVG that the Garifunas can potentially lay claim to. But the SVG government is rapidly selling off these properties to foreigners in order to finance developments such as the Argyle Airport. So would any movement towards reclaiming our Garifuna real property birthright lead to frictions between the Garifuna people and the political establishment in SVG?
Frankly speaking, there is no better place for the establishment of a Garifuna Nation than on SVG or Yuremein as you call it. However, we must tread lightly and be circumspect in our dealings/initiatives to insure a peaceful and positive outcome in our quest to right the wrong of the European pirates and re-establish the homeland of our ancestors.
In full support of your national initiative.
Your Garifuna brother,
Vinci Vin
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Response from Wellington C. Ramos:
Dear My Garifuna Brother Vinci Vin,
I am so happy and pleased that you asked this question about what physical land we will be able to administrate as a nation. Like you rightly mentioned the country of "Yurumein" now known as Saint Vincent & the Grenadines is the rightful homeland for all the Garinagu people who were forcefully removed from their without due cause and those who remained and were born in this country up to today. There are several political models of nationhood and we have examined all of them but have not decided on any yet.
The name of the country was changed by the British and they also passed several decrees to stop our people from practicing their culture. Which means that there are grounds for us to consider Restoration of our nationhood because the evidence is available for us to support this just claim.
We have are not extinct people which the British had intended for us to become. Our culture is still alive and kicking we just need to re-energize our resiliency, courage, boldness and will.
Recently, I had the opportunity to watch the Video titled "A Stolen Nation" now known as "Diego De Garcia" where the Americans and British have a huge military base in the Indian Ocean. The Chagos Island people experience is similar to our people's plight. They only number about 4,000 people and this happened in 1963. We number about 400,000 people and our removal took place in 1797. The Chagoan people are fighting to regain back their nation state and they are close to getting it back. Constitutions are living documents and the could be amended or replaced to the convenience of nations as being displayed by the most powerful nations of the world over time.
Send me an Email at: wramos451 (@hotmail.com and I will send it to all the Garifuna people in Saint Vincent & the Grenadines to watch through you.
Your Garifuna Brother,
[signed] Wellington C. Ramos

The "Jackson-Kush" Plan for economic emancipation of the nation of New Africa

New Africa [link], a nation captive in the USA!

"Chokwe Lumumba Talks about the 'Jackson-Kush' Plan on 'Solidarity' Site"
2013-05-02 by Donna Ladd from "Jackson Free Press" [http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs/politics-blog/2013/may/02/chokwe-lumumba-talks-about-the-jackson-kush-plan-t/]
Doing some research just now, I ran into this interview from last week with mayoral candidate Chokwe Lumumba that I think many of you will find interesting. In it, he discusses the "Jackson-Kush Plan" and where it fits into his organization's plan "for self-determination and economic democracy

From the plan: “In order to create the democratic space desired, we aim to introduce several critical practices and tools into the governance process of the Jackson city government that will help foster and facilitate the growth of participatory democracy” [to include Participatory Budgeting, Gender-Sensitive Budgeting, Human Rights Education and Promotion for city employees, a Human Rights Charter, Expanding Public Transportation, Solar and Wind-Powered Generators, and a “South-South Trading Network and Free Trade Zone” to partner with the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) — ed.]

In the interview with Lumumba, he explains show his work in Jackson is part of a larger plan for the region:
[begin excerpt]
CL: Our plan is essentially a self-determination tactic and strategy for African people in America, particularly and specifically in the areas which are affected by the plan. We call it the Jackson-Kush Plan, because Jackson is the city that we’re in and where we are running for mayor in May 2013, while the western part of Mississippi is the Kush District.
From Tunica, which is in the northwest part of Mississippi, all the way down to Wilkerson County in the southwest, are 18 contiguous counties. All are predominantly Black, with the exception of Warren County which is 47% Black.
We’re fighting for the self-determination of that region. This type of self-determination is strategically or tactically tied to enhancing other fights of self-determination in other areas of the South.
We’ve often heard of the Black Belt South [the historic term of reference to agricultural regions in the Deep South with majority Black population — ed.], but hopefully self-determination is not only in the South. It will inspire movements of self-determination intelligently laid in other parts of the country.
[end excerpt]

Lumumba told the interview why he ran for City Council in the first place:
[begin excerpt]
Should we run? We didn’t want to give credence to an oppressive system… But we’re in a city that’s 85% Black, in a county that’s 70% Black, and in a region where 17 of the 18 counties are predominantly Black.
So we adjusted our strategy to account for the fact that people with whom we are organizing in good faith, to fight against the conditions that they are experiencing, should be entitled to put people in office and expect them to do what they wanted them to do.
We decided it was important that we run for seats, and pick those where there was a high probability we could win. So we ran for the City Council.
[end excerpt]

Lumumba says he hopes to establish an "alternative" form of governing:
[begin excerpt]
ATC: Have you developed particular forms for expressing self-determination?
CL: We have created a People’s Assembly (PA) as part of our strategy in organizing our movement. The People’s Assembly is open to the people in the area. At first we held a PA in Ward 2 because I’m the Councilman of Ward 2. Now we’re expanding it to cover the whole city of Jackson.
People can voice their complaints but more importantly, try to take control over planning for city government. This can be a base for organizing. We want it to become an alternative source of governing. What we’re doing is building an infrastructure for a liberated people.
[end excerpt]

Here he addresses his campaign:
[begin excerpt]
CL: The campaign depends upon the support of the people. But we’re not saying that in order to vote for Chokwe you have to believe in an independent party. Instead we say that in order to vote for Chokwe, you should believe that we’re moving toward a form of independence from the kind of oppressive things that we’ve had in the past; we’re moving toward a people’s form of government.
Of course we do have to confront this question of what’s going to be an independent political party. What do we want to do to rescue us from the parties that currently exist and the malfeasance which they have toward our people?
[end excerpt]

More about the "Kush District":
[begin excerpt]
CL: This is probably less of a problem in the Jackson election, the mayor’s election, than it will be as we expand into other parts of the Kush District and other parts of the state. Generally speaking, in Jackson and in much of the Kush District it is difficult to really make much of a difference in local elections where 85% of the voters are Black. But our objectives are not limited to Jackson. Our objectives are not even limited to the Kush District.
Ultimately we’re talking about expanding self-determination, expanding human rights. We’re talking about expanding socially and economically just systems throughout the state. And when you talk that talk, then voter suppression becomes a very real response.


"Why We All Should Care About the Mayoral Race in Jackson, Mississippi"
2014-04-03 by Asha Bandele from "Huffington Post" [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/asha-bandele-/jackson-mississippi-mayor-election_b_5086812.html]:
For those of us living far from the south, discussions of Mississippi may make us recall the Civil Rights Movement, some period in time we now think more likely relevant in a history book. But believing that couldn't be more wrong. On April 8 there will be a special mayoral election in Jackson, Mississippi and it has implications for all of us and here's why. Chokwe Antar Lumumba the son of the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba who was an attorney revered nationally by human rights advocates the world over and who died suddenly in office on February 25, is running. Like his father before him, Chokwe Antar believes in and has the support of his father's closest allies and citizens across the city. Together they are seeking to continue the former mayor's legacy, which was to demonstrate before the world what a people-led, democratically governed city looks like. A Lumumba-led Jackson will serve as a model to municipalities across the country.
The late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, who was propelled into office in June of 2013 by some 87 percent of the voters in Jackson, was lauded at the time of his death as having done more in eight months than many had done in eight years. In covering the late mayor's funeral, the New York Times captured his impact [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/us/jackson-mourns-mayor-with-militant-past-who-won-over-skeptics.html?_r=0] when they quoted former Mississippi governor William Winter who memorialized the mayor by saying "'Based on the stereotypes this old white man had formed about (Lumumba), I thought that he would divide our city. I was wrong. The strong leadership of Chokwe Lumumba has opened the door to a bright future for us.'"
I, as well as democracy-loving people across the nation do, support Chokwe Antar's candidacy because his work with his father as an attorney, on the campaign trail and as an foot-soldier for that which is just and compassionate, assures us that he will carry on the Lumumba legacy [http://electlumumbamayor.com/index.html].
He does not do so alone.
Chokwe Antar takes up the mantle of leadership after deep council with family and the late mayor's closest political advisors in government and life. A senior partner in the successful law firm that his father built, Antar was instrumental in defending the people of Jackson, most notably in his work to free the Scott Sisters, who had been incarcerated for some 16 years of a life sentence for their widely disputed role in a robbery in which no one was hurt and 11 dollars were reportedly stolen.
There is ground to lose if Chokwe Antar is not elected. I think of the racial profiling ordinance his father worked to pass in his role as councilman. Its application must be defended and assured. I think of the funding for improvements too long neglected roads and other areas of infrastructure that Mayor Lumumba was able to achieve through a one percent tax increase agreed to by elected officials from both sides. And I worry, having heard the news that a mural of the late mayor created out of love after his death, was painted over, reportedly because it would remind voters too much of him and unfairly elevate Chokwe Antar's campaign. We already see that without right-minded leadership, already there are those seeking to redact the voice and expression of the people -- indeed the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of speech.
Because I believe in justice, because I believe in compassion, because I believe in freedom of speech and because I believe in the demonstration of all these things, not the for-camera proclamation; and because I stand with the hundreds who gathered in the rain when he announced his run with his sister, Rukia Lumumba who declared, "My father was the guide. My brother is the light," I support the candidacy of Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
And so should you.


"Rukia Lumumba Shocked, Hurt by Removal of Mural Honoring Her Father"
posted 2014-04-04 by R.L. Nave to "Jackson Free Press" [http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs/jackblog/2014/apr/04/rukia-lumumba-shocked-hurt-by-removal-of-mural-hon/]:
Rukia Lumumba, daughter of late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and sister of mayoral candidate Chokwe A. Lumumba, wrote the following letter about the removal of a mural honoring her father. It is published here verbatim:
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Open Letter to Jackson, Mississippi on the Painting Over of the Mural in Tribute to My Father, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba -
I am both saddened and disappointed to hear of the decision to paint over the mural that was created in tribute to my father, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. The mural was created by Derrick Perkins & several young artists to honor my father by displaying his mantra " One City, One Aim, One Destiny" on a city park's wall. The mural was painted prior to my brother’s decision to run for Mayor and absent my family’s request or knowledge. That is why it was especially hurtful and came as a shock to learn that the mural was painted over due to complaints, by a few, that the message of the mural was too close to my brother, Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s platform. When my father passed away on February 25th, the number of people who said publicly that he had done more for the city of Jackson in eight months than many had done in years, was innumerable. My father’s mission and vision was to ensure a city that was made ever stronger, economically, spiritually and ethically. That my brother, Chokwe Antar, has, after deep consultation, chosen to carry forward that mission, should not be disparaged.
For me and many residents of Jackson, MS that mural served as memorial and a reminder of the love my father had for the City of Jackson. It served as a constant call to Jacksonians, near and far, that we must work together to help Jackson RISE! The mural embodied my father's vision - a vision rooted in growth, unity, democracy and cultural diversity. I am sincerely grateful to Derrick Perkins & the many young artists who took the initiative to put their creative genius to work, and created such a beautiful and fitting tribute to the man I knew as Daddy and whom many others knew as friend and Mayor Lumumba. Although this is disappointing, my family and I remain encouraged and steadfast in our commitment to walk in his memory. As my father often said, "God, plus love, plus people's power equals progress."
Thank you all for your prayers and continued support.
One City, One Aim, One Destiny!
Rukia Lumumba

Lovelle Mixon, warrior of New Africa

New Africa [link], a captive nation caged in the USA!

Check out "RIP Lovelle Mixon" by ESEIBIO THE AUTOMATIC - [reverbnation.com/ecbotheautomatic/song/20582371-rip-lovelle-mixon]

"‘The Ghosts of March 21’: an interview wit’ filmmaker Sam Stoker"
Interview by M.O.I. JR Valrey, posted 2014-03-18 to "SF BayView" [http://sfbayview.com/2014/the-ghosts-of-march-21-an-interview-wit-filmmaker-sam-stoker]:
The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and the newly released “Unfinished Business: Block Reportin’ 2” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at [www.blockreportradio.com]. He can be reached at [blockreportradio@gmail.com].
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March 21, 2014, marks the fifth anniversary of the police murder of Lovelle Mixon, who was killed after he murdered four Oakland police officers and wounded a fifth, around 73rd and MacArthur Boulevard in East Oakland. The murder of Mixon and the cops further polarized the city, that two months prior had been rocked with rebellions related to the police murder of Oscar Grant that cost the establishment in downtown millions of dollars. Hours after Mixon was killed, lame-stream media started broadcasting all over the world that Lovelle Mixon was on the run for rape, although a number of journalists, including filmmaker Sam Stoker and I, were never able to make contact with witnesses or victims or the families of victims, pushing me to believe that the rape charges are fabricated to limit the amount of momentum that the people’s movement was gaining on the anti-police terror front at the time.
“The Ghosts of March 21” is a documentary about the bloodiest day in the history of Oakland law enforcement, shot by Damon “Hooker Boy” Hooker and directed, written and edited by Sam Stoker. It’ll premiere at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley on March 20.
“Ghosts” is definitely a film that you don’t want to miss because it captures exactly how the police are an occupying army in the Black communities of the United States and other places where the masses of people live below the poverty line. If you can’t catch it on that date, Block Report Radio will be hosting a tour of the film all over the country in the following months. Check out filmmaker Sam Stoker in his own words …
Sam Stoker, the director of "The Ghosts Of March 21," writes:
"This interrogation of a day in the life of Oakland, California, is focused on March 21, 2009, when a shoot-out between a young man named Lovelle Mixon and members of the Oakland Police Department resulted in the death of Mixon himself and four Oakland police officers. Closely following the day’s events, this documentary examination of the encounter’s underlying contradictions challenges the mainstream narrative of the confrontation and in so doing, it sheds new light on the nature and reproduction of racism in the contemporary United States. To date, the dominant narrative of the shoot-out, propagated by the Oakland Police Department, state officials and the media, has been that Lovelle Mixon was a monster and a rapist and the slain officers were angels and heroes. This perspective, viewed through a liberal lens and reliant on misleading labels, pretends the shoot-out occurred in a vacuum devoid of history and sociopolitical factors; producing an illusion that has re-enforced the status quo, suppressed critical thought, and ultimately, attempts to delegitimize the Black experience in America by rejecting the validity of the systemic factors at its root."


M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us a little bit about why you chose to do a film on Lovelle Mixon?
Sam Stoker: The original idea for this project was to make a documentary, essentially, of Kristian William’s book “Our Enemies in Blue” and for the film to focus on the potential of police violence to spark broader liberatory movements. Originally, I was going to examine several cases from across the U.S.; however, due to logistical reasons, I had to keep narrowing down the scope of the project until eventually I was looking only at Oakland – and the Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon cases specifically.
A lot of the folks I was bouncing ideas off of at the time suggested I ditch the Mixon case, arguing he was too unlikeable, there was nothing redeemable about his actions and that the case wasn’t conducive for a film critical of police violence. Politically, I disagreed with those positions.
Still, they were legitimate obstacles, especially when considering how severely Mixon was dehumanized and the rape allegations that have been made against him. It wasn’t until I really started to grapple with them that I began to recognize just how powerful of a story was going untold. And while the process of pulling it out was not easy, I was captivated by its complexity and political potential right away.
(Lovelle was mourned by a large and loving family. His cousin is at the mic. – Photo: Dave Id, Indybay)


M.O.I. JR: What kind of anti-police terrorism work have you been involved in prior to doing this film?
Sam Stoker: I’ve been involved in anti-police work for a number of years. In Oakland, I’ve been involved in a few projects. Most significantly, I was involved in the Oscar Grant Movement and helped found the Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant, which organized a number of the demonstrations and helped sustain the movement and gave it some direction after CAPE fell apart and the initial upheaval subsided. I learned a tremendous amount from that experience and this film is in many ways an extension of that work.

M.O.I. JR: Where did you get all of the information about the cops’ actions on March 21, 2009, as well as all of the on-the-scene footage?
Sam Stoker: The on-scene footage is from Damon “Hooker Boy” Hooker, who has been filming East Oakland street life for years. I was lucky to find him and that he agreed to let me use the footage. The bulk of the information about the police actions comes from the Board of Inquiry report that was released about six months after the incident.
It provides an official account of the police’s actions and decision-making processes throughout the day and also outlines the department’s numerous violations of its own standard operating procedures. It has been an excellent resource. And my background in firefighting and knowledge of the Incident Command System, which the police use to manage emergency situations, has been helpful in drawing out the significance of those violations.
(On March 21, police swarmed the hood, a mass of confusion)


M.O.I. JR: How do you think that the police murder of Lovelle Mixon relates to the police murder of Oscar Grant?
Sam Stoker: I think it relates in a number of ways. One of the most important, however, is also among the easiest to overlook or dismiss, and that is that both incidents are related in that they were produced by the same fundamental, systemic-level problems: exploitative, oppressive capitalist social relations and white supremacy.
It also relates in terms of the way it affected the political response to the murder of Oscar Grant. The events of March 21 jolted a lot of people and were destabilizing enough to push people toward the poles, to where they felt safest, a shift that was based on their relationship with the police.
For most whites, that meant a shift toward the state, which was evidenced by the massive outpouring of public sympathy that culminated with the funeral spectacle for the four officers, as well as the silence of the majority of the white left that had been quite vocal about Oscar Grant but found itself unable to address Mixon’s violence.
For people of color, and especially Black folks, the situation was more complex, but I think one of the outcomes of it was it forced people to articulate a more profound analysis on the situation they found themselves in, particularly the most marginalized. Those positions were drowned out by the hegemonic narrative that argued the police were heroes and Mixon was a demon, but on the micro level people could see who was who and what they saw made a difference.
It was a moment of clarity that advanced a revolutionary analysis and level of commitment that in the long run would shape the movement more significantly than the state or liberal left that would ultimately hurt it. The militancy of Occupy Oakland and the refusal to allow police in the camp is an example of that lineage.
(Demonstrators marching on March 25, 2009, four days after the deaths of Lovelle Mixon and four cops, easily connected the dots to the police murder of Oscar Grant less than three months earlier. – Photo: Dave Id, Indybay)


M.O.I. JR: What do you think about Oakland’s on-going war against police terrorism – i.e. Oscar Grant campaign, Lovelle Mixon, Occupy etc.? What is different about the people in Oakland in your opinion?
Sam Stoker: I think the war against police terrorism is resistance to white supremacy, suffering and, ultimately, liberalism. It is part of a process that began a long time ago and is destined to continue until the contradiction is resolved in some way.
Unfortunately, because the collective common sense of the United States is rooted in liberalism – that is, it largely denies the existence of structural inequality and attributes all success or failure to the individual – the vast majority of suffering produced by structural inequality is internalized and endured alone. But the fact that it is made largely invisible doesn’t make it unreal, and unfortunately most people won’t understand that until they are faced with the consequences of it, which is how I’d define the events of March 21, 2009 – a consequence of oppressive social relations. In this respect I don’t think Oakland is all that different than most cities.
I imagine there are a number of factors that contribute to the political culture of Oakland, but I suspect that one big one is the fact that there is a well documented history of oppression in the city as well as a formidable tradition of resistance, particularly around the problem of police violence, that has elevated the community’s fundamental political consciousness and helps legitimize resistance that in other cities may be far more marginalized.
That history is important because it gives meaning and direction to people’s lives, and when that consciousness, which is self-respect and the demand to be respected, is combined with all the negative implications produced by the structural inequality of a system the police enforce, that history provides a notion for what needs to be done.
Putting it into action is the revolution, which itself is an evolving, living process that is constantly transforming; and I think it is important to look at resistance to police violence in this way. It is also the case that it is almost always the commitment and uncompromising demands of the few, not the many, that plant the seeds that become the catalysts of change. And one thing that is unique about Oakland is its ability to consistently nurture and develop the few.
(By March 21, Oakland had seen several mass marches for Oscar Grant, but the march for Lovelle Mixon on March 25 was a little different: It was almost solidly Black and it was in East Oakland, where Lovelle lived and died and where the politics of police terrorism are well understood.)


M.O.I. JR: Can you describe where you got the title and your creative process with this documentary?
Sam Stoker: From the beginning of this project I have been captivated by a sense that there was something of great value buried beneath the story’s complexity – beyond the so-called facts. I was convinced it was there because I could feel it, but I didn’t know how to articulate it. The process of understanding and then conveying that notion defined the creative process and it took a long time.
The reason why is actually reflected in the name. The film was first called “Lovelle Mixon, Politically,” and that version framed and defined the events of March 21, 2009, in relation to the police execution of Oscar Grant and the political movement that was taking place, which anyone familiar with the subject matter knows is an important part of the story.
What I began to realize, however, is that it wasn’t Lovelle Mixon’s story, but rather an interpretation of the political situation that was built on an analysis of the world that Lovelle Mixon, in all likelihood, would have defined in a completely different manner. That didn’t make it incorrect, but it felt tired. It was his story that needed to be told if the film was to have any value, and by that I mean, if it was to harness the transformative power of cinema.
From that moment onward, I was chasing a ghost. Attempting to decipher Lovelle Mixon’s consciousness from its absence and by tracing the various manners through which it was erased. It was a significant change in approach, which can be summarized as the difference between using a generalization to define the specific and the specific to define the general.
And while the film is still, ultimately, my argument, it was a shift that equated to letting Lovelle Mixon define himself – a process that, I’ve learned, is less about methodology than it is developing a fundamentally new perception of reality. One not unlike that described by Huey Newton in the epilogue of “Revolutionary Suicide” when he writes of the ancient African tribes that, when asked who they were, would reply, “I am we.”
To understand March 21, 2009, is to see how the past shapes the present; it is to see ghosts, lots of them. It was this process that sparked the name change and also significantly transformed my perception of reality and how I understand political struggle. I’ve tried to construct the film to maximize its potential, not simply to show a different way of seeing, but to fundamentally reframe the viewer’s perception.

M.O.I. JR: What did you learn about the situation that shocked you while you were doing research about this film?
Sam Stoker: What shocked me was hearing about the last hour of Lovelle Mixon’s life and learning of the calmness and resoluteness with which he faced his death and what it says about society and the power structure when contrasted with the chaotic, revenge-driven activity of the police that were hunting him down – all of which is the opposite of how people understand the situation. It is horrifying to find out how fragile reality really is.

M.O.I. JR: What do you want people to get out of this film?
Sam Stoker: My hope is the film helps people grasp a deeper comprehension of how power flows, functions and distorts our perceptions of reality. Equally important a goal has been to legitimize the Black experience by 1) making it visible; and 2) contextualizing it structurally; and 3) illustrating white supremacy in a clear and coherent way and inspiring people to act.

M.O.I. JR: Are you working on any other projects?
Sam Stoker: Yes, my partner and I are currently researching our next project, which examines contemporary working class conditions in the Central Valley, but I can’t say more about it until production is complete because it could blow the opportunity. We are also busy building /CRONISTAS/, a radical film collective inspired by Third Cinema. And this summer I’ll be helping Jacob Crawford from wecopwatch.org edit together a film chronicling police violence and the anti-police movement in Oakland since Oscar Grant.

M.O.I. JR: How do people keep up with you in regards to this film?
Sam Stoker: The website is the best way: [www.theghostsofmarch21.org].

Zapatista Week of National and International Solidarity

More information about the Liberated Communities protected by the EZLN [link]


"Zapatista Support Bases Under Attack: Call for a Week of National and International Solidarity"
2014-02-14 by Jessica Davies from "Upside Down World" [http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/4700-zapatista-support-bases-under-attack-call-for-a-week-of-national-and-international-solidarity-]:
Following recent events in Chiapas, the Network for Solidarity and against Repression has urged “adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, and every organization, collective, and honest person in Mexico and the world who, from your own places, extend your embrace to the dignified rage of the Zapatistas,”  to participate in the

This call results from great concerns about recent events, denounced by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center as: “the Chiapas government’s failure to prevent attacks on the support bases of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) from the 10 de Abril community,” leading to “an imminent possibility of new attacks and an intensification of the violence, which would be a risk to life and personal integrity, in addition to the violations of the right to territory and autonomy of the Zapatista peoples.”

These events came to light on January 31, when the Zapatista Good Government Junta, Heart of the Rainbow of Hope, from Caracol IV, and Whirlwind of our Words (based in Morelia, Chiapas) denounced new aggressions suffered by Zapatista support bases (BAZ). The attacks were made on the iconic Zapatista community of 10 de Abril in the autonomous rebel municipality 17 de Noviembre, by groups of government supporters belonging to the group Independent Center of Agricultural and Campesino Workers (CIOAC) Democratic, from the nearby Tojolabal community of 20 de Noviembre. Six BAZ members were injured, three of them seriously, and one is in danger of losing his sight. Furthermore, a shocking attack also took place on staff from the San Carlos Hospital in Altimirano who came to give assistance, but were attacked and prevented from attending to the injured.


Background to Events in 10 de Abril -

One of the most remarkable achievements of the Zapatistas following the historic uprising of January 1, 1994, one which transformed the lives of tens of thousands of indigenous people, was the reclamation, or recuperation, of huge areas of land and territory. As in many cases prior to 1994, the BAZ of what is now the ejido (communal landholding) of 10 de Abril worked their ancestral lands, taken from them after the Spanish conquest, as paeons or servants of the landowners who used the lands for cattle ranching, and treated their workers with abuse and contempt. Following the uprising, the serfs descended from the rocky hillsides to the fertile valley and reclaimed their heritage. In March 1995 they set up the community of 10 de Abril (named in honor of Emiliano Zapata, assassinated on April 10, 1919), and worked their own land again in community as free men and women. They now use their land to grow crops including coffee, corn, beans, vegetables and bananas, and have declared the rest, which is forest and mountain and rich in unusual species, to be an ecological reserve.

The CIOAC Democratic was founded in 1975, and is known for its close links with the three levels of the Mexican government and for its support of political parties. It actively promotes government social welfare programs and receives finances from the state for activities designed to deactivate resistance and dissent. According to the Morelia Junta, this organization has been threatening and provoking the Zapatistas in this area since 2007 with the aim of dispossessing the BAZ from the lands which they have recuperated since 1994 “because they wanted to become the owners.”

Last October and November 2013, according to an earlier denunciation by the Junta, members of a related organization, also from 20 de Noviembre, known as CIOAC historic, invaded the lands of the ejido 10 de Abril, committing aggressions and issuing death threats. The invaders “claimed as their own more than 20 hectares of coffee, corn, beans and bananas” planted by the BAZ. Groups from Europe denounced the attack: “Those who seek to take away their land now are campesinos (small farmers) who did not receive land when the ejido to which they belong, 20 de Noviembre, divided up their ejidal lands following the dictates of the bad government; and now, supported by the organization CIOAC historic, they are trying to take by force the land of the Zapatista compañeros.”


The Recent Attacks -

The Junta tells how, on January 27, “250 people from the organization CIOAC democratic, from the ejido 20 de Noviembre, official municipality of Las Margaritas, came to provoke us.” The aggressors cut down and destroyed the signs at the entrance to the ejido, and then proceeded to the ecological reserve, where “they began to work with 5 chainsaws chopping down 9 pine trees, 40 oak trees, 35 coffee trees, and three banana trees.” Altogether they took away “a total of 41 pickup trucks” full of timber to sell, leaving with threats to return. “We assessed the cost of what they stole from us, it comes to 40,530 pesos.”

On January 30, 300 people arrived in 18 pickup trucks, “ready to do violence,” with machetes, rocks, sticks and clubs. The CIOAC Democratic leaders, Miguel Vázquez Hernández and Jaime Luna González, carried and used firearms, as did the leader of another group, ORCAO (Organisation of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo,) Francisco Hernández Aguilar from El Nanze village, who joined them, “carrying high-powered firearms.” Verbal aggressions were quickly followed by physical ones, as the group from 20 de Noviembre “where some people have for a long time tried to appropriate the lands of 10 de Abril, over which they have no rights,” began to beat the BAZ. Very significantly, the Junta says, as it also said in its denunciation last November, “the people were paid 100 pesos each as a wage for the violence with which they attacked us.”

“When we saw our compañeros fall we sought emergency help from the San Carlos hospital, in Altamirano…. but the CIOAC Democratic aggressors did not let them through because they were blocking the crossroads.” The ambulance, along with the driver, a doctor and a nun, “were taken hostage by them to their ejido.” Once at 20 de Noviembre, the three hospital personnel were beaten.

Two other nuns were following the ambulance in a pickup truck. Sister Patricia Moysén Márquez relates how they were stopped by a large number of people carrying sticks and machetes, who threatened to burn the vehicle, and pulled the nuns out. She refused to give them the keys. She describes how women from the same group “started to defile us, trying to take the keys away from me. As I resisted, they began to undress us. They put their hands wherever they wanted and held both of our arms. They hurt us, tore my jacket and took out the keys and my purse where I have all my documents. I asked them to return it to me but they flatly refused.” The aggressors took the vehicle, and the nuns managed to escape. The other staff were released later that night.

Sister Patricia states in her testimony: “We identified ourselves as being from San Carlos Hospital and said that we were going because of a call for help due to the fact that there were wounded. Their reaction was that they were going to burn the truck because we were from the government. We said that we were not from the government, but rather from the church. They said that we were Zapatistas who were going to help our group. We said that we were going to see the wounded from whichever religion or party. The problem that they had was not our affair, nor were we going to solve that, only to help the wounded.” As has been pointed out in a letter from the La Karakola Social and Cultural Space in Mexico City denouncing the attack, it was in clear violation of international law, as the Geneva Convention guarantees “the rights of people in times of war, specifically the right of medical personnel to be considered neutral, in order to treat the wounded.”


The Context: Low Intensity Warfare -

It is now over 20 years since the Zapatista uprising, and since then, says the Network for Solidarity and against Repression in their call to solidarity, “the BAZ have built and nurtured another way of doing politics in key areas such as health, education, women’s participation, housing, communication, culture, trading, to name a few. Their…. significant progress in the process of autonomy has been the starting point for this new world which is emerging.”

However, “Today, as 20 years ago, the counterinsurgency strategy against the Zapatista indigenous peoples continues: military forces, paramilitaries, ‘democratic campesino organizations,’ commercial media, ‘social programs,’ and the whole political class are part of this war of extermination, a war which is headed by the bad governments, both federal and state, who only serve the interests of a system which needs dispossession, exploitation, neglect and repression in order to survive.”

One of the main tactics of counterinsurgency is funding, training, arming and promoting the development of “shock” groups of local indigenous, lured by the promise of land, guns, money, status and material possessions, who are ordered to attack, threaten, harass, provoke, undermine and ultimately destroy the BAZ communities. Disguised as social and agricultural organizations (such as CIOAC and ORCAO,) or in some cases as evangelical churches (like the Army of God) some are fully paramilitary, while others are less well-armed. These groups are made up of supporters of the government and the political parties, and actively promote the government “social” and “welfare” programs, which are used as another means of undermining the resistance.

Faced with all this provocation over the last 20 years, the BAZ have, with great dignity, continually resisted the temptation to respond with violence. “They again tried to provoke us and to take from us our recovered land which was paid for by the blood of our fallen compañeros,” they say in the most recent denunciation, but yet again they resisted the provocation. As Hermann Bellinghausen wrote recently, “Without the peaceful but active and uncompromising attitude of the Zapatistas, the conflict would be very much more serious.”

In response to the attacks, pronouncements have been made from countries including Italy, Germany, Spain, the UK, France and the US as well as from groups in various parts of Mexico. One group from France relates in their pronouncement how some of their members were students of the Escuelita, the Little School of Freedom according to the Zapatistas, in the community of 10 de Abril, already emblematic following the long-term presence of an Irish group of human rights observers and accompaniers from 1997 to 2000. The French group describe how carefully the community cared for the trees in their now-ravaged ecological reserve.

The campaign emphasizes that, as the activists from La Karakola said in their letter, communities like 10 de Abril, and the staff from the San Carlos Hospital, “are an example and a hope for a different world, one in which what happens to others concerns and moves us. Community systems of healthcare, education and culture are the hope that a new world is being born, and are an example which needs to be cared for by every one of us.”

Week of National and International Solidarity, “If they touch the Zapatistas, they touch all of us”, to be held from February 16 to 23, to “denounce the counterinsurgency war” and express that “the Zapatista communities are not alone.”

United Micronations Organization / Organización de las Micronaciones Unidas (OMU)

[http://es.omu.wikia.com/wiki/Organización_de_las_Micronaciones_Unidas]
[http://omu-foro.foroactivo.net/forum]

"Liberal democracy vs organic nationalism"

2010-12-10 by Dr Michael Hill, president of the League of the South, posted to "Southern Nationalist News Network" [http://southernnationalist.com/blog/2013/12/10/liberal-democracy-vs-organic-nationalism/]:
Since the 18th century Enlightenment, the West has made an idol of liberal democracy. It has in effect become the political default position of most Westerners, including most Americans. We accept it as ‘right’ without critical examination. In fact, I don’t think it incorrect to say that liberal democracy has become our civic religion. From it has sprung most of the cultural, social, and political issues that plague the West today: multiculturalism, tolerance, and diversity; floodtide Third World immigration; moral relativism; the feminist and homosexual agendas; the anti-Christian movement; the decline of the Church; public education; gross materialism; the ‘racism’ industry; and a hatred and distrust of the Western canon and tradition in general.
In American politics, voting majorities marshaled every two or four years have become our gods. They dictate to us how we shall live and die. Most say they wouldn’t have it any other way; that would be un-American. To be patriotic, they say, we must live with the results of majority rule, whether a general election, a Supreme Court ruling, or a Congressional vote. They will allow that we can grouse and complain about it as long as we know ourselves bound by it. Otherwise, how could we claim to be ‘good Americans’?
But a verdict is not sacrosanct just because it was reached through the democratic process.
Our classroom civics books did not tell us that majority rule only works where there is already a consensus of sorts on the fundamental issues within a particular society. For instance, in a Christian country with a high degree of racial and ethnic homogeneity, common language, institutions, and inherited culture, most matters up for a vote are superficial policy issues. They don’t tamper with the agreed-upon foundations of society.
However, in a multicultural and multiracial Empire such as ours, majority rule does tamper with the agreed-upon foundations. It is often fraught with dire and even deadly consequences for the losers, especially if the winners bear a grudge. The fifty-one percent can dispossess the other forty-nine. This is obviously not conducive to civic peace and prosperity.
But the most important question of all is this: can liberal democracy as it exists today uphold civilization? If it cannot, it must be replaced with something that can.
Projections are that the USA—and our beloved Southland—will have a White minority by 2040 or even earlier, depending on immigration policy and minority birth rates. That will mean the end of things as we know them—the end of our civilization. Our ancestors bequeathed us, their acknowledged ‘posterity,’ a society based on Christian moral principles, the English language, racial (and some degree of ethnic) homogeneity, and British legal and political institutions. All this—the foundations of our civilization–will be lost.
Perhaps Americans in regions outside the South are happy with the idea of giving way to minorities and their White leftist enablers. But if the rest of the country is determined to jump off the cliff, is the South obliged to follow along so ‘democracy’ can be upheld?
It is time that Southerners—the descendants of European, Christian peoples who settled the Southern regions of North America—make a fundamental decision to break with the Enlightenment idea of liberal democracy and to embrace the concept of Southern nationalism. Southern nationalism is nothing less than the acknowledgement that Southerners’ (see above definition) survival, well-being, and independence should be the primary considerations for the here-and-now as well as for the future. If current political arrangements do not promote our survival, well-being, and independence, then they should be cast aside for new arrangements that do promote these ends. This includes democracy in all its forms.

WHAT IS ORGANIC NATIONALISM?
What the South must embrace for its survival is organic nationalism, a form of nationalism in which the political state (the government) receives its legitimacy from the organic unity of those whom it serves. In other words, it is a true nation-state such as historic France, Germany, or England. Hallmarks of that organic unity are race/ethnicity, language, culture and folk customs, and religion. It is therefore a ‘nation’—a distinct people, a Folk—in the primal and fundamental sense. By nature it is conservative in that its main function is to conserve a society that will defend the lives, liberty, and property of the people who comprise it. Their survival, well being, and independence are paramount. Conversely, they reject the top-down universal hegemony of the elites.
What would a South that embraced organic nationalism look like? It would be a South that returned to its European roots but with plenty of leeway given for those cultural attributes that are uniquely Southern. We could listen to Beethoven as well as Hank Williams. We could read Sir Walter Scott as well as William Faulkner. It would embrace and celebrate as good and wholesome all its peculiarities without apology and without embarrassment—its literature, language and dialect, religious faith, folkways, songs, cuisine, myths, and overall worldview. It would also draw from that deep cultural well that is Europe, taking the best of that and calling it our own as well.
That the organic South is both European and extra-European should be no problem for us to accept. After all, we have been in Dixie for four hundred years, and that experience has turned various European ethnicities into a loose but cohesive unity known as ‘Southern.’ Thus we have one foot in Europe and the other in Dixie, and that makes us a distinct people, a real nation unlike any other in the world.
Unlike the South, the USA is not a ‘nation;’ rather, it is a failed leftist multicultural experiment that is morally, spiritually, and financially bankrupt. I do not believe our Founders intended it to be such, but nonetheless it has become that. And as such, it should have no appeal to true Southerners. Indeed, it should have no moral purchase on our loyalty. The USA had become the “rat” that Patrick Henry smelled all those years ago.
The USA has bound its identity to the Enlightenment idea of Liberal Democracy and all that it entails. Moreover, it has compounded the problem by willingly and wittingly committing itself to becoming a multicultural Empire in which democratic institutions are manipulated by the ruling elite for the benefit of favored groups. We Southerners are not one of those groups.
As I look at my precious children and grandchildren, I shudder to think what will happen to them and their descendants when they become the numerical political (and actual demographic) minority. Revenge—’getting even’—will be a commonplace occurrence as our Folk are attacked and robbed of life, liberty, and property with impunity in the name of Social Justice or some other fabricated universal right. Will the long-established rights of our children and grandchildren be protected by the new regnant majority who are not products of Western Christian civilization? Or will a majority of wolves vote to devour a minority of sheep? I think you know the answer.
We Southerners must embrace a new paradigm. We must think ‘outside the box’ in which our enemies have placed us. We must have a new organizing principal: organic nationalism. It is the answer for the South if we are serious about the survival, well being, and independence of the Southern people. That means the rejection of the status quo of living in a multicultural empire that sucks our lifeblood.
For our self-preservation dare we cast aside voting and the idea of the ‘consent of the governed’ for a monarchy or dictatorship? No. We must simply re-define along the lines of organic nationalism the political and social entity to which we belong—the Southern nation. In that entity, our interests and moral principles will hold sway, and we can determine who gets to be called ‘citizen’ and who exercises the right to vote and to participate in other civic matters. No more being ruled by alien, universalist elites. No more kowtowing to the interests of Massachusetts, New York, and California or those of the globalists. The Southern nation will be run by Southerners in the interest of Southerners. Will that dawning not be a glorious and blessed day?

[signed] Michael Hill, in Killen, Alabama

Indigenous Rights Delegation to Nicaragua -- March 15 - 25, 2014

Join Nicaragua Network National Co-Coordinator Katherine Hoyt and Alliance for Global Justice board chair Charlie Delaney-Megeso, a member of the Nulhegan-Coosuk tribe of the Abenaki Nation, who has represented the Nicaraguan Miskito in the United States, on this important delegation.

Write now to [nicanet@AFGJ.org] to put your name on a list to receive information and an application!
Fee: $1,150 which includes all lodging, food, translation, and all in-country travel, including the plane flight to Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas. It does not include international travel.

The delegation will include:
* Meetings in Managua with government and other representatives involved with indigenous property demarcation and titling as well as environmental preservation;
* Meeting with representatives of the indigenous of the “Pacific” side of Nicaragua;
* Plane flight to Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region;
* Meetings with governmental officials involved in indigenous land titling and the environment;
* Meetings with Miskito leaders and leaders of human rights and environmental groups; and
* Trip by land to the Bosawas, the UNESCO Biosphere Nature Reserve to observe deforestation and meet with Mayangna leaders to learn about their way of life and the problems of land invasion.