[News] Indictment of African People's Socialist Party Is a Racist Assault on the Black Liberation Movement

[Anti-Imperialist News]

blackallianceforpeace.com
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/racistindictmentofapsp>
Indictment of African People's Socialist Party Is a Racist Assault on the
Black Liberation Movement
------------------------------
*Indictment of African People's Socialist Party Is a Racist Assault on the
Black Liberation Movement*

April 19, 2023

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) unequivocally condemns and opposes the
recent indictment of four members of the African People’s Socialist Party
(APSP), alongside three Russian nationals.

The unsealed indictment states that on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, a federal
grand jury in Tampa, Florida, levied charges of “conspiring to covertly sow
discord in U.S. society, spread Russian propaganda and interfere illegally
in U.S. elections.” While no evidence of conspiracy, propagandizing, or
interference has been presented, the APSP and its members have the right,
as all U.S. citizens do, to freely criticize U.S. domestic and foreign
policy.

Not since the Palmer Raids of the early 20th century, nor since the
indictment of W.E.B DuBois in 1951, or the confiscation of Paul Robeson’s
U.S. passport during the anti-communist “McCarthyist” era, has there been
such a hysterical response to African people asserting their rights and
freedom of speech in the United States. This renewed attack against
anti-imperialist Africans, framed within the absurd notion of “Russian
influence,” comes as capitalism decays and U.S. global hegemony loses its
hold on the world. The attacks on the APSP and the Uhuru Movement are part
of a historical tendency to align African political activists with U.S.
“adversary” states to marginalize African internationalism (including
solidarity with Cuba and Palestine, for example) and to suppress Black
radicalism.

It is also an assault on the efforts of Africans organizing against the
violence and murders suffered at the hands of the U.S. state. Indeed,
Africans do not need Russia to tell them they are suffering the brunt of
violence in the heart of the U.S. empire!

BAP demands the indictment be dismissed, and Uhuru must be free!

For further reading on this case, please read BAP’s July 30 statement
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/bapsolidaritywithapsp>
that commented on the initial FBI raid of the APSP’s properties.

BAP Coordinating Committee

*Banner photo:** Courtesy of Alex Wong/Getty Images*
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