As I get ready to attend the United Nation’s 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women as a part of Eritrea’s delegation led by National Union of Eritrean Women’s President, Tekea Tesfamichael, I think it’s important to address the latest media blitz scrutinizing the state of Eritrea and highlight my perspective as a dialectical materialist and member of the diaspora. As a young Eritrean living in the United States and a proud product of the Eritrean people’s struggle and liberation movement, conversations around freedom, justice, self-determination, and sovereignty, were dinner table conversations growing up. This is common . . .
A Balcony in Atlanta
Mercedes Benz stadium eating away at the horizon I hate that big ass ugly piece of shit Pipes exhausting smoke particles as Cars drive past Engines cranking bodies modest, or flashy, loud, as bright lights and booming bases drown out the resistance of the unhoused Gentrification left behind the Ghosts of Black neighborhoods bulldozed over the decades of Black face in leadership Wakanda empty fists of solidarity painted over a Black mecca That aint lookin so Black The Jacksoning of Atlanta Washing whiter While it be the model city for the petit bourgeois Wealth gap growing wider than our inner . . .
Fannie Lou Hamer- “We’re On Our Way”
Fannie Lou Hammer speech before a mass meeting held at the Negro Baptist School in Indianola, Mississippi (September 1964). Thank you very much. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am very glad to be here for the first time in Indianola, Mississippi, to speak in a mass meeting. And you just don’t have a idea what a pleasure this is to me. Because we been working across—for the past two years—and Mr. Charles McLaurin worked very hard trying to get a place here during the time that I was campaigning and he failed to get a place. But it’s good . . .
Equality Through Equal Participation: Eritrean Women
The participation of women in the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) was not only significant but central to the movement’s success. Women made up one-third of the armed struggle and played vital roles, from combat to nursing and mechanics, teaching, driving, and radio and clandestine operations. The EPLF was highly progressive in organizing women at the grassroots level and encouraging them to join the national liberation movement.Despite facing cultural, religious, and patriarchal obstacles, Eritrean women fought for their rights and shattered oppressive barriers through equal participation. Their contributions to the struggle challenged traditional gender roles and redefined the capabilities of . . .
SNAP Benefits for African Mothers Are Gone, While Ukraine Eats Good
As the country ushers in commemorations for ‘International Women’s Month’, 42 million households have been hit with a significant reduction in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits impacting the ability of millions of mothers to feed their children. In December 2022, Congress voted to end the pandemic emergency allotments after passing the government funding package the previous year. After nearly three years, the program that temporarily increased federal SNAP benefits for low-income families came to an end on March 1st. Eighteen states already ended the pandemic increase in SNAP benefits before March. The remaining 32 states and the District of . . .
Challenging Binary Gender Roles Using Nkrumahism-Toureism-Cabralism
Thesis Gender binary – the classification of gender e.g. a “man” or “woman” into two, distinct, and opposite categories – is a construct of class development and division and is therefore inconsistent with the humanist values of our Nkrumahist/Tureist/Cabralist ideology. Background The dominant perception of gender in the world today is the gender binary, a concept based on socialization that teaches us that people defined as “men” and people defined as “women” occupy distinct and different roles and functions within society. Within this social construct, women are defined as having the primary function of bearing and raising children. Men are . . .
BAP Supports National Day of Action Against Police Terror
Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) member organization Community Movement Builders (CMB) is calling all organizations, organizers, and community members to a National Day of Action Against Police Terror on March 9, 2023. In the wake of the brutal killings of Tyre Nichols and forest defender Manuel Tortuguita, the city of Atlanta is going full steam ahead to build what activists have dubbed “Cop City.” Atlanta officials have proposed a $90 million complex be built on 85 acres of forest. This would only arm and deploy more police—whom we refer to as the domestic army—in African and colonized working-class and poor . . .
The Life of Winnie Mandela
The following text was reprinted from Black Women in South Africa and the Case of Winnie Mandela, by the Winnie Mandela Solidarity Coalition, c/o BCLSA, box 8791, Boston, MA. 02114. The Winnie Mandela Solidarity Coalition (WMSC) was formed in Boston, Massachusetts in response to the interest generated by a forum on repression in South Africa held by the Third World Women’s Organization. The goals of the WMSC were to build a campaign to free Winnie Mandela and other women political prisoners in South Africa and to educate, organize, and involve individual women and women’s organizations in support of South African . . .