Sista Lauryn Hill- Back, Black, Beautiful and Powerfilled!

Sista Lauren Hill Jammin Reggae Style on Ex-Factor in NYC on November 27, 2013

By Aisha Harris

With her legal troubles seemingly behind her, Lauryn Hill has gotten back to touring, and the reviews have been glowing. Yesterday, the singer shared an electrifying performance from one of the recent concerts: a rousing rendition of "Ex-Factor," with a heavy reggae accompaniment in place of the original, more subdued R&B arrangement.

The nearly 12-minute peformance is worth every second, rising to an intense, emotional finale and proving that when it comes to performing, Hill has still got it.

Aisha Harris is a Slate culture blogger for Brow Beat. Follow her on Twitter.

 NSA Lie on 60 Minutes Exposed!

Posted by Clay Claiborne

16 december, 2013-- On CBS 60 Minutes last night, NSA officials made the fearful claim that a "BIOS plot" to "to destroy computers" from an unnamed foreign government could be "catastrophic for the United States." NSA's Debora Plunkett told 60 Minutes that such an attack could turn every computer in the country into "a brick" and that the results of such a cyberattack "could literally take down the US economy."

This is pretty frightening stuff! Good thing we have the NSA on the job, snooping into all our computers and protecting us from such catastrophes. Maybe we should stop complaining and give the NSA even more powers.

Except this is a complete lie.

When told that such "a program that can destroy every computer in the world," 60 Minute's John Miller said "It sounds almost unbelievable." Actually it is completely unbelievable.

Almost all modern computers now contain a backup BIOS designed to protect us from such cyberattacks and the more ordinary problem of a BIOS update that goes wrong. This is certainly the case with any computer sold by my company, Cosmos Engineering Company.

I have been in the computer business since the early 1970's and have been building computers as Cosmos Engineering for 30 years. I remember a time when what the NSA is trying to peddle was true, a time when a corrupt BIOS or a failed attempt to reprogram the BIOS did brick it and the computer or at least its main board would have to go back to the manufacture for repair before it could be used again, but starting about ten years ago, most computer makers solved that little problem with something often called "Dual BIOS" that provided a backup to the operating BIOS. Now when the computer BIOS gets wiped, either by malware or error, it is simply a matter of switching over to the backup BIOS and restarting. Then with the computer running, the original corrupted BIOS can be replaced and the computer made whole again.

Here is a description of dual BIOS from the Computer Hope website:

A dual BIOS is a computer motherboard that contains two BIOS chips, a main BIOS and a backup BIOS. This motherboard setup helps a motherboard recover from any issues that may happen during a BIOS update, helps protect the BIOS from any potential virus, and helps with any other issues that may arise with the BIOS.

Here is a link to a discussion of dual BIOS on the highly respected Tom's Hardware websites. One commenter describes it simply as "like carrying a spare tire in your car." Now I have to wonder if the NSA has the good sense to carry spare tires in their cars or would a flat tire be "catastrophic" for them.

Either, the NSA is unaware of this decade old technology, or they are lying through their teeth and fearmongering when they tell such stories to us via the highly trusted 60 Minutes news show. Since they hire very smart computer people like Edward Snowden, I don't think they are unaware.

Knowing that they lied to us about this "BIOS plot," it would be foolish to believe their story about how Snowden cheated on his NSA exam or anything else they told us in the 60 Minutes interview.

Here is a transcript of the 60 Minutes segment:
One they did see coming was called the BIOS Plot. It could have been catastrophic for the United States. While the NSA would not name the country behind it, cyber security experts briefed on the operation told us it was China. Debora Plunkett directs cyber defense for the NSA and for the first time, discusses the agency’s role in discovering the plot.

Debora Plunkett: One of our analysts actually saw that the nation state had the intention to develop and to deliver, to actually use this capability-- to destroy computers.

John Miller: To destroy computers.

Debora Plunkett: To destroy computers. So the BIOS is a basic input, output system. It's, like, the foundational component firmware of a computer. You start your computer up. The BIOS kicks in. It activates hardware. It activates the operating system. It turns on the computer.

This is the BIOS system which starts most computers. The attack would have been disguised as a request for a software update. If the user agreed, the virus would’ve infected the computer.

John Miller: So, this basically would have gone into the system that starts up the computer, runs the systems, tells it what to do.

Debora Plunkett: That's right.

John Miller: --and basically turned it into a cinderblock.

Debora Plunkett: A brick.

John Miller: And after that, there wouldn't be much you could do with that computer.

Debora Plunkett: That's right. Think about the impact of that across the entire globe. It could literally take down the U.S. economy.

John Miller: I don't mean to be flip about this. But it has a kind of a little Dr. Evil quality-- to it that, "I'm going to develop a program that can destroy every computer in the world." It sounds almost unbelievable.

Debora Plunkett: Don't be fooled. There are absolutely nation states who have the capability and the intentions to do just that.

John Miller: And based on what you learned here at NSA. Would it have worked?

Debora Plunkett: We believe it would have. Yes.

John Miller: Is this anything that's been talked about publicly before?

Debora Plunkett: No, not-- not to this extent. This is the first time.

If they can't tell better lies, they must not be very good spies!

Mos Def Tries to Go thru Guantanamo Force Feeding

Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) force-fed under standard Guantánamo Bay procedure

As Ramadan began, more than 100 hunger-strikers in Guantánamo Bay continue their protest. More than 40 of them are being force-fed. A leaked document sets out the military instructions, or standard operating procedure, for force-feeding detainees. In this four-minute film made by Human Rights organisation Reprieve and Bafta award-winning director Asif Kapadia, US actor and rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), experiences the procedure

Pacifica radio Getting Whiter and Whiter

The ethnic cleansing of broadcasters from Pacifica continues nationally: Jared Ball speaks

December 13, 2013- http://sfbayview.com

by The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey

The ethnic cleansing of Black and Brown broadcasters off the airwaves this year claimed not only the careers of Luke Stewart, formerly of Washington, D.C.’s WPFW, Weyland Southon, formerly of the Bay Area’s KPFA, and myself, formerly of KPFA, but it also claimed one of its most talented producers, Dr. Jared Ball of WPFW.

Jared Ball 

His offense, which was very similar to my alleged offense against Pacifica, was that he made “disparaging remarks” against the station and network management, and it was determined that he would be suspended indefinitely from the airwaves of his Mid-Day Jazz and Justice weekly show. Known in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area as one of the most relevant and radical interviewers on the dial and for bringing on people and experts who are seldom if ever acknowledged for their contribution towards the self-determination of African people, Jared Ball will be missed on the airwaves of the DMV.

No matter what you do in the future, I salute you, Jared Ball, for your enormous contribution to our understanding of issues in our communities worldwide and to our understanding of how media can work in our interest or against us. The Block Report will continue to support you in your future endeavors that involve revolutionary media work.

Here is Jared Ball in his own words explaining his recent dismissal from WPFW, the D.C.-based Pacifica radio station.

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell people how you became interested in and later got into radio? When and where was this?
Jared Ball: I first became interested in radio while in college. I started and briefly worked with the sports “department” of our campus radio station. But before long I realized how difficult it is in settings like that to address political issues, so I moved on pretty fast. It wasn’t until I was coming home from graduate school in 2001 that I really began to think about the importance of radio and started to get involved in some local low-power radio projects in Washington, D.C.
I also still count the mixtape radio project we started, FreeMix Radio, that was meant to circumvent an absence on the dial of real Black radical thought and music. That was part of what I understood to be – potentially – the important function radio can still play in advancing elements of our struggle. Eventually, as part of a now defunct organizational effort, I got more involved in WPFW there and soon became a regular programmer.
M.O.I. JR: For out of towners, what is the history of WPFW in the DMV area? How long have you been with WPFW? How long have you been doing your Mid-Day Jazz and Justice show?
Jared Ball: I am far from an expert on the history of WPFW, but I can at least say that it has been on air in more or less its current form since 1977. It has been largely known as a jazz and broadly speaking a “Black music” station with a diverse and mostly “Left” programming body.
I, perhaps mistakenly, always associated with particular programming over the years, like that of Tom Porter, Bob Daughtry and later Damu Smith, so I always took the station to be a Black community and progressive station. That is not to say I was unaware or disinterested in other programming, but this was my focus and what always drew me to that station. I began doing partial production and small news reporting pieces for various programs somewhere around 2002-2003 and became more of a full-time regular programmer around late 2004-2005.
I was first on Decipher, the station’s nightly hip-hop block that many of us had pushed for for years; our show was The Blackademics. I then moved to early morning jazz once a week and eventually Mid-Day Jazz and Justice before finally settling on The Super Funky Soul Power Hour once I took over one of the time slots vacated by the late Ambrose Lane.
M.O.I. JR: When and what reason were you given about why you were recently dismissed from your show?
Jared Ball: Shortly after my show aired Friday, Dec. 6, 2013, I was called and told of my indefinite suspension by general manager Michelle Price, the interim program director Tony Bates, and Gloria Minott who I think at the time was the public affairs director. Officially, Ms. Price indicated that I had broken the zero tolerance policy on publicly criticizing the station and network management.
Though I’ve never been told precisely what I said that broke that policy, I am assuming it was during a 10-minute segment of the show in which I engaged in a “debate” with a friend over whether to keep my show on the air at WPFW given the decisions being made and the treatment I had received from the old and new management. I said that I have serious questions and concerns about all of Pacifica’s national public affairs programming being White, mostly male and mostly over 50 years of age. Those interested can hear the show here and reach their own conclusions as to the legitimacy of the decision.

Officially, Ms. Price indicated that I had broken the zero tolerance policy on publicly criticizing the station and network management.

Unofficially there seems to be a continued move to purge the station of those who have been openly critical – on or off air – of management and network decision-making. Off-air, I had asked Ms. Price how the station and network arrived at these decisions, why other programmers – and yes, I included myself – were not selected, encouraged or supported in developing their shows to meet whatever the standards were or are.
I asked how could it be possible that a network claiming itself to be an alternative – one that will sell Malcolm X, John Henrik Clarke, the Black Panther Party and more during pledge-drives! – could not somehow find any representatives of the world’s majority population to serve as national public affairs programmers. Again, those interested can see here my comments to station management and my final statement on my time at WPFW and move toward developing their own conclusions.
M.O.I. JR: What has been going on recently at WPFW? How has that affected the whole Pacifica network?

Dr. Jared Ball, associate professor of communication studies at Morgan State University, is the author of “I Mix What I Like: The Mixtape Manifesto” and co-author of “A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X.” Learn more at IMixWhatILike.org. 

Jared Ball: I cannot speak to everything that has been going on; I was never the most involved member of the station. However, over the last two years or so there has been a struggle over the financial, managerial and programmatic direction of the station. Program grid changes were imposed, well-respected programmers like Tom Porter were removed, the former interim program director, Bob Daughtry, was removed, they just fired another brilliant young Black engineer and musician, Luke Stewart – whose latest “offense” was letting air an imperfectly edited speech by Fred Hampton during an on-air commemoration of the great man – and many other issues that have led to terrible in-fighting, divisiveness and, speaking for myself, a sense of hostility and unease in the studio space itself. How this has affected all of Pacifica I cannot say. It seems part of a process that impacted you and many other programmers, particularly at WBAI in New York. I would say, though, that this affects Pacifica in weakening further its D.C. affiliate, one that should be among the loudest, most diverse and highly political but one that has, as others have noted, been more interested in Black music than Black thought.
I also think this weakens the network, which I still contend would be better served by reducing more of the extravagant salaries executives and managers earn at the network and redistributing those funds throughout the network in order to develop more programming, investigative and radical journalism – all of which I think would increase our audience and impact on those audiences.
This is the only way I see to save the network: Get more radical, more diverse and more involved in producing news.
M.O.I. JR: Ethnically cleansing the airwaves seems to be a trend every few years at Pacifica. What do you think? What are some of the reasons being said behind closed doors for the recent dismissal of Black broadcasters on Pacifica like you and myself?
Jared Ball: I think this is part of a long-standing struggle with White liberalism. From Hubert Henry Harrison to Claudia Jones, to DuBois, King, Malcolm X and Kwame Ture, all – and more – have noted the shortcomings of the White “Left” in dealing with Black people and Black liberation. I also think this is an issue of ideology and politics.
The Black hired hands who carry out management policy at WPFW are there for their commercial and corporate capabilities, not their interest or ability to program the most forward, critically thinking and stylish content. I listen to all their favorites too: I learn a lot from Amy Goodman, Richard Wolff and Doug Henwood, Project Censored and Counterspin – I do appreciate their work.

I asked how could it be possible that a network claiming itself to be an alternative – one that will sell Malcolm X, John Henrik Clarke, the Black Panther Party and more during pledge-drives! – could not somehow find any representatives of the world’s majority population to serve as national public affairs programmers.

But as I have long argued – and demonstrated – they do not have strong track records of including Black, Brown, Indigenous thought, worldviews, perspectives or concerns. And as I have said to our management, I think my show was better than theirs. I think there are plenty of other – and far better than me – world’s majority programmers who could be cultivated into strong national public affairs hosts.
The issue is that Pacifica feels that only these and those like them are worthy of an audience, of network support and of real promotion. So there is simply not a lot of room for people critical of their dominance of public affairs and national slots or critical of the limitations of their perspectives and analyses.
Or if the goal, as it once was at WPFW, is to bring NPR and NPR-like programming and to think that mirroring that kind of programming will improve the economic state of the network, then it stands to reason that those critical of that approach will not find themselves welcomed – certainly not those of us who have publicly equated NPR with Fanon’s description of Radio Alger in colonial Algeria.
Those of us who prefer an approach born of what can broadly be described as the Black radical tradition, including those of us who bring music and particularly hip-hop from that perspective, are less likely to be welcomed. But really, it is just offensive to suggest that WPFW could not find one Black or Brown programmer to promote for the national grid or to air as prime drive time evening public affairs.
M.O.I. JR: How do you look at what just happened in your situation and relate it to emancipatory journalism? What does this incident say about the state of the unfiltered political Black male voice in the media?
Jared Ball: I, too need to be reminded that my initial interest in emancipatory journalism – a philosophy of journalism that presupposes an on-going colonialism and need for bottom-up, organizationally based journalistic practice – and it being applied to the tradition of the hip-hop mixtape, all derived from an assessment of our media environment that there is no other more viable outlet, on or offline, for that kind of work or expression.
Pacifica and the rest of the so-called “Left” or “alternative” media world have proven themselves in this regard – and long before my removal – to be insufficient at best. I have to also be reminded that the political function of media is to prevent unsanctioned change, which means that, prior to any revolutionary change, there will never be unfiltered Black – or otherwise – women or men in prominent spaces. I think we have to again conclude – or should have long concluded – that the “Left” has not produced such space either and begin again to move accordingly.

Those of us who prefer an approach born of what can broadly be described as the Black radical tradition, including those of us who bring music and particularly hip-hop from that perspective, are less likely to be welcomed.

M.O.I. JR: What is next for you? How do people stay up with your podcasts?
Jared Ball: I don’t know exactly what is next for me. All I know is that I will continue to produce interview and discussion segments – and more – for anyone to use in their media work and that can all be found at IMIXWHATILIKE.ORG.

A Bit of Black History: 
The African Origin of the Banjo

By Vincent Carroll   
The Denver Post  12/13/2013


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It’s been a month of news about race, racial epithets and racial heroes — from the sublime in Nelson Mandela to the ridiculous in Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.

Mandela’s death reminds us that the overthrow of institutional white supremacy, whether in its Jim Crow or apartheid forms, was one of the towering achievements of the 20th century.

The Incognito fiasco cautions us that even after decades of incessant warnings about the malignant power of speech rooted in bigotry, some people still don’t appreciate that the N-word is best avoided — whatever your ethnicity.

Now, race can be a tiresome subject for some whites, especially when it is used to leverage social advantage or to silence political adversaries under the guise of perceived slights. But race will never be something we entirely leave behind. It’s so central to our history — even odd strands of history most of us rarely have reason to notice.

That reality was brought home to me with special force some months ago when I began dabbling in 19th century banjo music — I’ve been playing the instrument for several years — and particularly the repertoire of the early minstrels. Anyone who doubts the full ugly history of the N-word and its message of condescension or contempt need only cast an eye over the playbills and broadsides for minstrel shows, or the sheet music of the time. The word is scattered liberally throughout, as are caricatures of plantation life and black dialect and entertainment.

White entertainers even performed in blackface, with the disturbing images captured in some cases by early photographers.

As Philip F. Gura and James F. Bollman write in “America’s instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century,” many minstrels “were recent Irish immigrants who melded the music of their home with the music of the plantation South.”

“Such exaggerated clothing and overall appearance,” the authors explain, “characterized minstrel shows on both sides of the Atlantic and presumably allowed working class whites to think of themselves as superior to the African Americans against whom they often competed for jobs, particularly in the urban Northeast.”

The banjo may be distinctively American, but its origins go back to the lute-like instruments of West Africa that were brought to the Western Hemisphere in the slave trade. In America, these folk instruments typically were made with gourds.

“The instrument proper to the [slaves] is the Banjar, which they brought hither from Africa,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1781.

Whites like Virginia’s Joel Walker Sweeney mastered and refined the instrument in the 1830s and 1840s, and its popularity took off.

“Sweeney somehow offered a connection to the instrument that African-Americans, denied access to public venues such as theaters and circuses, had been previously unable to provide the greater public,” writes Bob Carlin (a great banjoist in his own right) in “The Birth of the Banjo.”

“From our vantage point 150 years later, it is impossible to know whether it was his interpretations of black playing styles, the sonic improvements made by himself or others to his instrument, his charismatic stage presence, or simply his white skin that sold America on the banjo.”

Eventually the banjo moved into the mainstream, performers dropped the blackface and the African influence receded in public memory.

So why play early banjo music at all given its baggage? Because they’re great tunes, because the past is never as pretty as we might like, and because it’s important to remember the instrument’s origins.

When the old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops played at Denver Botanic Gardens last summer, it confronted the blackface phenomenon head-on, but that didn’t stop the black group from playing “Briggs Corn Shucking Jig” and “Camptown Hornpipe,” right out of the early minstrel playbook.

Perhaps the band realizes that knowledge of the past is not an invitation to racism; if you’ve got any sort of moral compass, such knowledge should inoculate you against it.

A SOUTH AFRICAN BLACK REAWAKENING

The September National Imbizo (SNI)

SNI & The People’s Manifesto – FAQs

What is the September National Imbizo?

The September National Imbizo (SNI) is a PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT. It is a national voluntary movement of like minded people who wish to bring about a new society where all are taken care of for real. This means the SNI  is not a political party, but a revolutionary movement that wants total change for our people in all areas of life, from how we are governed (politics), to the use of our natural resources and wealth (economy) to relations amongst people (social).  This change must put BLACKS FIRST and not benefit a new political elite and white capital

A movement for total liberation?  Didn’t 1994 do this?

We note that 1994 only extended apartheid under new management by the ANC.  We note that blacks continue to suffer and therefore there is need for a BLACK centred movement in society and the SNI has come to represent this possibility. What happened post 1994 was NOT the deepening of democracy;   rather, people and a political party that claims to represent the people came into political power. But for them, the people they were to serve were not us, the majority, but themselves and their families and those already privileged by colonialism and apartheid.  The people for them include big businesses (e.g. the mining houses and the banks) that were central to maintaining colonialism and apartheid and that continue to deepen inequality and anti black racism today.

Don’t we have alternative political parties?

Political parties in general serve politicians and elites in society, revolutionary movements, like the SNI seek to end elite power and bring about a peoples democracy, where the people make decisions for themselves all the time.

It will soon be 20 years of ANC rule and bad politics which promote elite interests. The politics and policies of the ANC and DA are not meant to change the conditions of blacks. That is why all the main political parties are agreed on the inferior apartheid-like services they give blacks, from RDP houses to toilets without walls. The people’s movement is an opportunity to build a massive movement which can hold all politicians accountable and to struggle for real freedom. The SNI seeks to transform politicians and public servants to be servants for the people.

Why the SNI?

After 18 years of ANC rule and DA opposition politics it is clear that these parties do not care for the interests of the black majority. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Think about what happens if we don’t build an alternative movement? What is going to happen to our country? Another 20 years of ANC elite rule and DA lies? The solutions to our problems are political. Let the politicians respect and fear the people – let’s build the PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT.

For change to happen there is a need for a massive, radical and Black-centered movement in society, which would be able to mobilise against injustice waged by politicians. For this to work there is need to overhaul the existing nature of politics and economic systems.

Can this be done? How do we achieve the new society?

It can be done. The SNI stands for the total transformation of our society by any means necessary! The people’s movement desires to build a happy secured society, where all have access to equality not just as a right in a the constitution but experienced by the people in real life. Building a happy secured society means simply that democracy works for the people not for the leaders and public servants.

The first act is to question. The people’s movement wants to help our society to ask the question: is this how we should be governed? Until our people have asked this question honestly we can’t build a new society. So the SNI seeks to build a critical consciousness by asking these questions in society.

Is that kind of democracy practical?

It is only impractical because politicians don’t want real democracy, the result is that we have the anomaly were 400 parliamentarians rule over 50 million people! This is not democracy, this is surrendering power to an elite. That is why they abuse the mandate to govern and give each other perks and legalise corruption through the Ministerial Handbook. Children learn under trees but this handbook says a minister can buy two cars worth R1.1 million each.

We need to build new people’s democracy to serve the people. Technology makes a people’s democracy real, have you considered the possibility of voting on all major issues, such as tenders, e-toll, salaries of politicians and civil servants, laws and what the national budget should be used for?  Just at the click of a button we could have fired the Minister of Education for the text book fiasco. Cell phone technology for democracy is already used in countries such as Estonia.

What ideas and philosophy inspire SNI?

The People’s Movement is inspired by the ideas of liberation symbolised by the giants of the liberation movement against white supremacy and colonialism: ROBERT MANGALISO SOBUKWE (Radical Pan Africanism), STEVE BIKO (Radical Black Consciousness) and THOMAS SANKARA (exercising power to serve the people first!).  The SNI is therefore committed to philosophy and ideology of Radical Pan Africanism and Black Consciousness and the Sankarist practice of power! Dr Chinweizu best describes this philosophy as Black Power Pan Africanism.

 What is the Structure of the SNI?

Branch:

The SNI is based on branch structures. Every 20 people who join in an area can form themselves into an SNI branch with a branch coordination committee. The SNI doesn’t have portfolios such as Chairman or Secretary etc. All those elected to the coordinating committee are coordinators and may have be given specific, non permanent tasks which must be reviewed upon reasonable periods. A branch can further divide into study circles of about five people each.

Regions:

Two or more branches in an area can form a region.

Provinces:

Each province has a provincial coordinating committee and there is a national coordination committee as well. The national coordinating committee has five sub committees where any members can participate upon being asked to do.
All meetings of the structures of the SNI-the people’s movement are open to the membership.

A national Coordination Committee

The NCC is elected at the National Imbizo comprising provincial representative and five directly elected coordinators. The NCC is the highest decision making body between national imbizos and it has the mandate of implementing and interpreting the resolutions of the SNI.

Who can join?

The SNI is inspired by Black Consciousness and Radical Pan Africanism. Therefore Membership is open ONLY to BLACK PEOPLE.

Why Blacks only?

South Africa is an anti black white supremacist country managed by the ANC in the interests of white people. Only blacks can liberate themselves.

Who are blacks?

Black people are those people who define themselves as blacks who may come from the African communities, the so-called Coloured communities and so-called Indian communities. The SNI is aware of animosities within these oppressed communities. We are also aware that some do not want to identify themselves as black because of tribal feelings. This movement works to unite the excluded on a common platform. Steve Biko and his comrades managed to unite the oppressed before; also in the 1980s the oppressed acted as one. We must work for unity in action for a new society.

What does that mean? Is SNI just concerned about black oppression in South Africa?

The SNI – people’s movement is against all forms of oppressions. We struggle against white supremacy, which is a driven by capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism. Through our campaigns (like the People’s Manifesto) we are able to arrive at the first important building block of a revolutionary new perspective not only in this country but in the whole of Afrika. We are a movement that builds resistance to the many ways blacks are destroyed.

We are in solidarity with our brothers and sisters everywhere on earth who continue to face a hostile anti black world and are inspired by the struggles from 1804 Haiti Slave Revolt to the Black Panthers!

 And other forms of oppression?

Also the SNI is against, oppression of women and other gendered persons. We are against patriarchy, sexism, and homophobia. We are also against tribalism, religious and cultural intolerance. We oppose any cultural or religious practices that promote the oppression of anyone and women in particular.

Our objective is to take power and usher in a black socialist system capable of responding to the total needs of blacks. We simply cannot afford to leave this racist capitalist system intact thereby enabling it to continue crushing the spirits and destroying the bodies of blacks. We are compelled to radically transform this society and the world.

How far will SNI go to achieve this?

The SNI believes in the guide to action provided by Malcolm X that we shall struggle for liberation by “ANY MEANS NECESSARY”. This means that no method or approach is discarded before hand; everything must be used, from protest to insurrection, so long as such actions are guided by a clear perspective of liberation that put blacks first! All actions must be contemplated and tried so long as they don’t compromise the revolutionary line of our movement. (Please see guide to action).

We need to study closely what the most effective method of engagement at any given time dictated to by the reality on the ground is. All action must help our people to develop a critical consciousness and confidence in their own power. We shall not compromise with those agents of white supremacy more specifically the ANC and DA. In situations where we find ourselves in the same trenches with them, we shall maintain a revolutionary hostile posture and raise our voices against their treacherous politics!

FAQs -The People’s Manifesto (PM)

What of The Peoples Manifesto?

The manifesto demands that all politicians and civil servants (themselves, children and all people under their care) are compelled by law to use public services. It would be a criminal offense punishable with ten years imprisonment without the option of parole if found guilty.

Why the PM?

The people’s movement is undertaking campaigns to build the movement. Our key campaign rights now is the PEOPLE’S MANIFESTO, which demands that politicians and public servants and their families must be compelled by law to use public services. It’s only when Jacob Zuma and Hellen Zille are to use the same hospitals, schools, transport and houses that the public uses that they would improve the quality of public service.

But will politicians allow such a law?

The Manifesto attempts to inspire engagement on the philosophical-ideological and political-strategic thinking regarding the necessity and basis for, and the means for bringing into being a system that ‘Puts Blacks First’! It’s only when people demand real freedom that such would materialize! The people themselves have to fight to realize the promise of the people’s manifesto! We want economic freedom now! Social Freedom now! We want political Freedom Cultural Freedom Now! We say: We promise the politicians nothing! We want everything!

What is the approach of the PM?

By indicating a Sankarist approach to politics, it is thoroughly anti-imperialist, thoroughly democratic (new democracy) and unreservedly in the interests of Blacks. In line with this new perspective the PM appropriates the human rights ideology in the interests of blacks to play a mobilising role in our struggle against imperialism and compradorial classes and their state. Via the PM we are therefore able to distance ourselves openly from imperialist ideology of human rights at the international level and cultural-chauvinist/developmentalist ideology of the compradorial classes at the national level. What is being suggested by this new perspective via the PM is an ideological and theoretical break with the dominant discourse on human rights as indicated for example in the freedom charter and other liberal manifestos and declarations.

 Is the People’s Manifesto black Socialism?

This People’s Manifesto is intended to inspire a basic model, and fundamental principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a radically different society and government than the one that now exists. The Manifesto suggests a black socialist state which would personify, institutionalize and promote radically different relations and values among people; an anti capitalist state whose final and fundamental aim would be the final abolition of all exploitative and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive antagonistic contradictions to which these relations give rise. These endeavors would be guided by a commitment to the principle of BLACKS FIRST!

What can you do to help build the SNI?

1. Get any information you can on the SNI, its resolutions and campaigns
2. Join the SNI as an active member who is committed to building a culture of liberation, meaning culture must serve the interest of  all the people, ensuring equality is achieved for all. Oppression is not culture!
3. You may not want to join but support the campaigns of the SNI. Dot not hesitate to call SNI to a meeting in your area.
4. For further info, email us on: info@septembernationalimbizo.org