Good evening everyone, I am an organizer with Pan-African Community Action (PACA). On behalf of PACA, we appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all tonight. And we want to extend our appreciation to the family and friends of the victims of police violence who were willing to share their stories and reflect on their struggles in fighting for justice. Thank you.
Many of us have been directly impacted by police brutality and violence. Some of us have lost loved ones and friends at the hands of the police, a traumatic and shattering experience that has altered the course of our lives.
Even for those of us who have not been directly affected, we have witnessed the multitude of highly publicized police murders in Black and Brown communities across the country over the past decade. Names like Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others come to mind.
Pan-African Community Action (PACA) opposes the ramping up of local police agencies. PACA stands for the people’s money paid in taxes to be under democratic community control.
PACA joined several organizations of the Black Liberation Movement in the U.S. came together to issue a statement on the war in Easter Europe currently dominating the headlines, that reflects the political interests of the U.S. Black working classes.
Rep. Omar recently commended the US war machine for increasing the “transparency” and “accountability” of its bombing of her native country.
“Instead of this being an asset to expose AFRICOM and to the decolonization Africa, Rep. Omar validates the role of AFRICOM.”
United States representatives, no matter their racial or ethnic backgrounds, appear unable to perceive the inherent white supremacy in the notion that the US has some altruistic responsibility to police the continent of Africa with military troops and supervisors. As a result, "people of color," such as the Somali-"American" Congresswoman IIhan Omar provide political and moral cover to the presence of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the dubious claims about “US interests” on the continent.
We feel this is the time to go into the community with the combination of material aid and political education for building a people's program for survival and power.
To reduce the threat of both the coronavirus and the martial law response that is coming from the government, it is essential that we build our own grassroots healthcare programs, food production and distribution programs, and conflict resolution processes.
Join the Fight
We’re calling on African/Black working class people to join our efforts. Our problem is not only the coronavirus. Once this pandemic is under control, we still face poverty, other diseases, intra-community violence, and police brutality. Our only hope is through organizing for our total liberation through community control. Become a PACA member. Help us build for our survival and for a better life beyond COVID-19.
The phony US Left specializes in finding excuses to betray victims of US imperialism.
“It apparently does not matter to liberals that the forced takeover in Bolivia is unconstitutional and US support for it is a flagrant violation of international law.”
Trump administration sanctions that impose new travel restrictions on Cuba are aimed at Cuba's economy and will have no effect on Cuba's support for Venezuela, says Netfa Freeman of PACA featured on the Real News Network.
Netfa Freeman discusses the unique perspective of the Embassy Protection Collective's work through the lens of the Black working class and their connection with Venezuela with the Real News Network.
The Assata Shakur Study Group is a twice monthly political training ground for PACA and community members, held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month and hosted by the ONE DC Black Workers Center at 2500 Martin Luther King Ave SE, Washington, DC.
Chinese investment may come with strings attached, but Africa deserves an alternative to U.S.-led neoliberalism and militarization.
John Bolton’s recent unveiling of the Trump Administration’s “Prosper Africa” plan did what is typical of such U.S. foreign policy announcements. It performed the balancing act of admitting motives to protect vague “U.S. interests” while dishonestly claiming benevolent intentions for the other country, region, or continent concerned. In this case the continent is Africa.
The “new” Africa policy, National Security Advisor Bolton suggested, is an adjusted U.S. strategy to “assist” African economic independence from the predatory designs of China and Russia. In reality it is the Trump’s administration taking the baton from the Obama administration in the new Scramble for Africa, a sequel to the proliferation of conflicting European claims to African territory during the New Imperialism period, between the 1880s and the start of World War I.
Bolton admits as much when he calls the administration’s new plan a response to “predatory practices pursued by China and Russia [that] stunt economic growth in Africa; threaten the financial independence of African nations; inhibit opportunities for U.S. investment; interfere with U.S. military operations; and pose a significant threat to U.S. national security interests.”
He divulged this and the “new” U.S.-Africa policy in a speech he gave at the far-right Heritage Foundation.
It should be obvious that Bolton cares little about predation — he just doesn’t want other predators to compete with. He made no mention of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), which has put most African nations under the effective military control of the United States. AFRICOM is the re-colonization of Africa by the U.S., with thousands of U.S. troops now stationed in some 30 African countries and dozens of U.S. bases across Africa. The total estimated cost for AFRICOM in 2018 is $236.9 million.
Forward from Ferguson offers in depth analysis of the recent urban rebellions and how Black communities can use human rights and self-determination to navigate these challenging times.
The lack of self-determination and the need for Black people power is evident in every aspect of working poor Black life in the United States. Most recently, news from DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) brings our focus to policing.
On December 5, 2017 the MPD Use of Force Review Board (UFRB) found the killing of Terrence Sterling by police officer Brian Trainer unjustified and recommended that Trainer be fired from the department.
“The capitalist agenda is to neo-colonize Zimbabwe and appropriate its labor and land.”
When the press and media of the so-called Western world adjust their depiction of a nation they had formally demonized to one worthy of cooperation we should pause for a more critical analysis.
PACA Stands with the People of the DRCongo Pan African Community Action (PACA) stands in solidarity with the Telema Movement and the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo in their clear unified demand to have a self determined future and the removal of President Joseph Kabila. The Congolese youth have spoken. They have taken to the streets to express their rejection of the Kabila regime’s attempt to stay in power even though his term limits have expired. After suffering for 15 years under the brutality of Kabila and his security forces, the people have decided they no longer want an elitist authoritarian regime. Instead, they want to hold democratic presidential elections in order that they themselves decide the future course of their nation. To PACA the self determination of the people of the Congo, is of upmost importance. We define self determination as a people, and/or a nation having full decision making powers over their own destiny, something that should be supported by all freedom loving peoples.
After 11 months of secrecy in the case of Alonzo Smith, who was killed by special police in Southeast, Washington, DC, November 1, 2015, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jean Sexton is scheduled for a private meeting with Beverly Smith, mother of Alonzo and organizer of Pan-African Community Action (PACA). Sexton is the prosecutor assigned in grand jury proceedings of the case and PACA is the organization co-founded by Beverly Smith in response to the killing of her son. It is unknown what information will be revealed in the Thursday, October 13, 12 noon meeting at the Office of the United States Attorney in Judiciary Center.
by Netfa Freeman Brexit is cause for celebration for the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The European Union is the historical heir to the Berlin Conference of 1884 that divided the world into Euro-North American spheres of dominance. Europe has inflicted immense suffering on the rest of the planet. “Believing Brexit could represent the beginning of the end for international cooperation, is to believe that the world does or should revolve around Europe.”
by Netfa Freeman Cuba opened discussions with the U.S. on human rights, last week, with a reminder that the United States is no model for other nations. The Cubans cited “discrimination and racism patterns in U.S. society, the worsening of police brutality, torture acts and extrajudicial executions in the fight on terror and the legal limbo of prisoners at the US prison camp in Guantanamo."
A United Nations Working Group preliminary report on human rights violations against Black America advocates Black community control of police. That’s the general position of Pan African Community Action, one of the groups that testified before the UN experts. Community control of police would shift power, enforce democracy and allow folks to re-imagine community security as “a social force to actually protect and serve” Black people.
We feel this is the time to go into the community with the combination of material aid and political education for building a people's program for survival and power.
The Assata Shakur Study Group is a twice monthly political training ground for PACA and community members, held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month and hosted by the ONE DC Black Workers Center at 2500 Martin Luther King Ave SE, Washington, DC.
Forward from Ferguson offers in depth analysis of the recent urban rebellions and how Black communities can use human rights and self-determination to navigate these challenging times..png)
PACA Stands with the People of the DRCongo Pan African Community Action (PACA) stands in solidarity with the Telema Movement and the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo in their clear unified demand to have a self determined future and the removal of President Joseph Kabila. The Congolese youth have spoken. They have taken to the streets to express their rejection of the Kabila regime’s attempt to stay in power even though his term limits have expired. After suffering for 15 years under the brutality of Kabila and his security forces, the people have decided they no longer want an elitist authoritarian regime. Instead, they want to hold democratic presidential elections in order that they themselves decide the future course of their nation. To PACA the self determination of the people of the Congo, is of upmost importance. We define self determination as a people, and/or a nation having full decision making powers over their own destiny, something that should be supported by all freedom loving peoples.