African People's Socialist Party:

Editor's Note - The following article is reprinted from The Burning Spear Special Edition 1997 Vol. 21 No. 2, newspaper of the African People's Socialist Party.

On October 24, a new era of Black Revolution and resistance was born during the righteous rebellion of African workers in St. Petersburg Florida.

The rebellion erupted after the shooting of 18-year old TyRon Lewis by St. Petersburg police after a traffic stop. His hands raised in surrender while policeman James Knight pumped five bullets into his body as Officer Sandra Minor yelled, "shoot him, shoot him!"

Brother TyRon died in the ambulance in route to the hospital. In his path, an inferno of African rage consumed the streets of South St. Petersburg as African workers took up bricks, bottles, molotov cocktails, guns and whatever weapons they could get their hands on to drive the murderous St. Petersburg police from the African community.

Hundreds of courageous young African workers were immediately transformed into fearless freedom fighters who fought police in pitched battles in the streets, reduced sections of the city owned by parasitic merchants to ashes and strategically targeted South St. Petersburg police substations and command centers for destruction.

Hundreds of police from law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Florida were deployed to crush our rebellion. National Guard troops stood at the edge of our community awaiting orders from the white rulers to attack. Unafraid of this arrogant and vulgar display of deadly force, the courageous warriors of the African liberation in St. Petersburg fought them like seasoned urban guerrillas. Armed with makeshift weapons, guns and unflinching revolutionary heroism, these warriors camouflaged themselves in the shadows that landscaped the pitch dark streets, and suffer no casualties while making the oppressors pay a dear cost for their decades of crimes against our community.

By Friday morning, October 25, more than 33 well chosen buildings were burned, including two police substations, a bank and other white-owned businesses. No African owned businesses were hit.

Three weeks later, the people again exacted a price from the oppressive city government with a new and powerful intensity. On the night of November 13, following the grand jury's exoneration of killer cop James Knight and the assault by the police against the headquarters of the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement, African workers again rose up with brilliance and courage.

Before noon that day police arrested Uhuru Movement member David Willard. The police told him that they were doing sweep of Uhuru Movement members to get us off the streets in anticipation of the verdict.

At about 3:30 PM, 27 members of the Green Team, a special weapons assault team notorious in the African community for its brutality, charged the Uhuru House to arrest Mtundu Diallobe - an organizer for the Uhuru Movement who they fear because he is a popular leader among militant young African workers in St. Petersburg.

After arresting Brother Mtundu, the police assaulted Chairman Omali Yeshitela and local NPDUM President Kinara Zima with pepper spray and captured Uhuru Movement member Lenzy Williams. At this point hundreds of Africans stopped in the middle of traffic, came out of their houses and approached the scene of the confrontation. The police ran away.

Obviously this was an attempt to provoke a confrontation with our movement and justify a deadly military attack against us. But something totally different happened.

After this cowardly assault by the police, masses of Africans stood guard on both sides of the avenue where the Uhuru House stands, waiting for the police to attack again. The Uhuru Movement distributed hundreds of fliers condemning the grand jury verdict and inviting the community to discuss our next move at our regularly scheduled 6:30 PM mass meeting which takes place every Wednesday.

By 6:30 PM, an army of police clad in riot gear, armed with shot guns and tear gas, blocked off both sides of the streets in front of the Uhuru House, and declared our meeting an unlawful assembly. Helicopters and low flying airplanes swooped overhead, as police from throughout the state were being deployed into our community.

Over 100 people were already packed inside the Uhuru House. Then, over a loud speaker, the police announced that we had five minutes to disperse. In less than 30 seconds they began shooting tear gas from each entrance into our building where there were children and babies. They didn't intend for people to get out.

This attack on the Uhuru Movement was similar to the government attack on the Black Panther Party in Chicago on December 4, 1969 that resulted in the brutal assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, and the murderous May 10, 1985 police attack on the MOVE Organization in Philadelphia.

But their deadly plans were smashed by the ferocious and brilliant counter attack launched by African workers on the streets armed with bricks, molotov cocktails and gun fire.

Organized in small combat units of three and four, armed with bricks, molotov cocktails and some guns, African workers struck with lightning force and speed. They ambushed squadrons of police which sat like sitting ducks in the middle of the streets. They swiftly retreated into alleys, faded into the darkness.

Driven by revolutionary ingenuity reminiscent of the guerrilla fighters in Viet Nam, the same African workers of St. Petersburg who are forced through sheer poverty to ride bicycles instead of driving cars turned this poverty into a ingenious weapon against the police. Molotov cocktail- and gun-wielding African combatants on bicycles attacked police cordons then raced passed the returning gunfire of the police - quickly ducking into side streets, alleys, and backyards.

Unlike, the October 24th uprising, this time the warriors covered their faces with ski masks and bandannas like the Zapatista guerrillas in the jungle war zones of southern Mexico.

The police were paralyzed with fear as they were hit from all directions by invisible attackers.

"If need be, take the troops out!" one scared officer screamed over the radio. "They can't take the heavy gunfire out there!"

That night, two police were shot, a police helicopter was shot from the sky and 35 more buildings burned to the ground.

On the other hand, the African freedom fighters suffered no casualties. Most of those arrested did not participate in the resistance but were unwitting victims ambushed by demoralized and frustrated police.

It was the heroic resistance of the African workers which saved the lives of Uhuru Movement leaders and participants in the meeting which was underway inside our building. the police intended to commit brutal assassinations, murder and maiming to silence the Uhuru Movement in order to keep our community smothered under the heel of white oppression.

The wave of African rebellions which have rocked St. Petersburg came not only in response to the murder of TyRon Lewis. They came in response to the policies of the city of St. Petersburg which has waged an undeclared war against the African community for years. Like everywhere else in the United States, this war is designed to keep our people from building a revolutionary movement as powerful as the one the U.S. government crushed in the '60s. In St. Petersburg this war is also tied to the to the city's tourist industry and a growing service economy that is tied to the Florida Thunder Dome, now called the Tropicana Field.

In order to build this Dome, the city government demolished a section of the African community, destroying hundreds of African homes and businesses. To make sure that the area surrounding the Dome is "safe" for white spectators and tourists, the city's main economy, the City of St. Petersburg has imposed a brutal police state used to dominate the African community with an iron fist.

This police state is so repressive that the African people are banned from congregating in the public parks in the area near the Dome.

It was this police war waged against our community in the name of the Dome that resulted in the murder of Brother TyRon Lewis at the corner of 18th Avenue and 16th Street South, which sits exactly 13 blocks from the Dome.

But the officials of the vicious, vile and anti-black city attempted to blame the Uhuru Movement for the rebellions, because we were at the scene of TyRon's murder passing out leaflets and condemning the police thugs who murdered him. They claim we incited the rebellion, and they intended to scapegoat, jail and then murder members of our movement.

While we refuse to be scapegoated for violence which the police started, we declare that the purpose of the Uhuru Movement is to incite Africans and all freedom loving people to struggle against injustice. And on the night of October 24 and November 13, the masses of African people responded by heroically defending our community from police terror.

The African rebellion that took place in St. Petersburg was able to meet its strategic objectives and push back the state because the African working class had leadership from the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement, unlike in Los Angeles and Miami.

Here in St. Petersburg, an organized, revolutionary movement lies at the core of the resistance of the African people. This movement is led by the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement which arms the rebelling African workers with clearly stated and sharply defined aims, demands and slogans.

Immediately following the October 24 police murder, the Party and the Uhuru Movement went into immediate action, mobilizing and organizing the people.

The Uhuru Movement led demonstrations to the police department, held a town meeting for the community, organized a vigil, called a people's tribunal and an African boycott of white businesses. The Uhuru Movement was instrumental in pulling together the African American Leadership Coalition which united all sectors of the African community in support of the African working class. Because of this, the traditional methods used by the white rulers to crush the rebellions in Miami and Los Angeles failed in St. Petersburg. The African rebellion in Los Angeles and Miami, and even those in Leland, Mississippi and Tampa, Florida which came in the wake of our struggle in St. Petersburg, represented the courageous resistance of African workers against the same kind of U.S. government violence.

But in those cities without the leadership of a revolutionary organization, the police and troops of the U.S. government along with Uncle Tom neo-colonialists were able to move in, arrest the people and crush the just rebellions without having to deal with the needs of the people.

No matter how many people were arrested in St. Petersburg, the rebellion continued to speak through the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement. The Uhuru Movement pushed the question of our democratic rights as far as it could go. For this reason the government tried to wipe out the Uhuru Movement in order to destroy the heart of the people's resistance.

Even after hitting us with everything they had, they were unable to crush us because the people and the Uhuru Movement are one. In addition to suffering a humiliating military defeat at the hands of African workers in the streets, the city government of St. Petersburg was politically defeated. Elements of the African primitive petty bourgeoisie (middle class) who they [city government of St. Petersburg] tried to mobilize to attack the Uhuru Movement and condemn the rebellion united with the struggles of the African working class and joined with the Uhuru Movement in defense of the community.

The powerful unity which bound our community together, led to the organization of the African-American Leadership Coalition which transcends religious and political beliefs and embraces every section of our community. All those united with the people's demands which were advanced by the Uhuru Movement, echoed the sentiment of the African masses: "Hands Off the Uhuru Movement!"

Many of the different elements of the black middle class joined the coalition for their own reasons. Some realized that identification with the Uhuru Movement as the center of the people's resistance would be beneficial to them; and others realized that the weakness of the whole white rulers as a consequence of the rebellion enabled them to stand up for the first time. The fact is the rebellion of the African workers was the force that drew the Coalition together. Since this rebellion was strategically led and given political definition by the Uhuru Movement, the masses of African workers continued to articulate through a much broader voice in defense of our entire community.

This infuriated the white rulers, who used the St. Petersburg Times to viciously attack and chastise African politicians and preachers who participated in the Coalition. This is because participation in this coalition is an unspoken endorsement of the rebellion and the Uhuru Movement, which is the cement which holds the Coalition together, as well as the force which gave the rebellion its voice and its political leadership.

As a consequence of this political defeat, the white rulers in St. Petersburg were forced to deal with the demands of the people and in order to do this, they had to deal directly with the Uhuru Movement.

Just days after the police attempted to carry out the hit placed on our heads by the white rulers, Henry Cisneros, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development demanded a meeting with the Uhuru Movement almost as soon as he got off the plane. The morning after the November 13 police attack on the Uhuru House, Bea Griswold, an old racist white woman who sits on the city council growled at Police Chief Darrel Stephens, "I don't know why you don't have an arrest warrant for everyone of those (Uhuru) leaders..."

Mayor David Fischer refused to meet with members of the Uhuru Movement or the Coalition to negotiate around the demands made by our community. After Cisneros made an investigation into the contradictions in the city, he found that "all roads led to the Uhuru and Omali Yeshitela." Cisneros warned the city council that the African community's problems with the police are deeply rooted and that the demands of the community must be heard.

In a matter of days, city council President Edward Cole was forced to concede that "...it's very important that they [the Uhuru Movement] be involved [in discussions with the city]...[N]o one else has come forward to lead, and these people do in some way represent the area."

On November 23, the mayor sat with defeat morbidly engraved in his face as the Coalition, alongside Chairman Omali Yeshitela and the Uhuru Movement met with Henry Cisneros.

Cisneros agreed to meet some of the demands of the Coalition, one of the most critical demand being that the $28 million dollars coming into St. Petersburg from the federal government go directly into the African community and kept out of the hands of the city. This way the money will go to real economic development for the community instead of the city doling out blood money to its servants who stuff their pockets with money gained from the people's struggle.

Cisneros agreed to form an advisory committee which would include five members of the Coalition, three members of the city government and three members of the Chamber of Commerce. Cisneros, with whom Chairman Omali Yeshitela agreed to meet, described the leader of the Uhuru Movement whom the white media vilified as "a person who touches lives in a serious way. I found him a thoughtful person who had some important things to say."

Meanwhile, the Justice Department was called in to investigate the St. Petersburg Police Department. On December 3 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a two-day hearing at the St. Petersburg city hall. The commission was sent to the city by the federal government to "investigate" the murder of TyRon Lewis and the subsequent events.

St. Petersburg NPDUM local branch president Kinara Zima spoke before the panel laying out the brutal on-going attacks by the police both against the African community and the Uhuru Movement. According to the St. Petersburg Times of December 4:

"Members of the commission's state advisory board were so outraged to hear the president of the local National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement recount continuing harassment from police that one board member started to call for a Justice Department probe and another asked for a written report.

"St. Petersburg Uhuru President Kinara Zima said a class-action lawsuit would be filed soon against the city.

"Our lives are in danger everyday," said Kinara Zima.

We are not foolish enough to believe that the Justice Department of the U.S. white power state is somehow on the side of the African people in St. Petersburg, or that it will stop the murderous, anti-black violence of the St. Petersburg Police Department.

What the investigation does represent is the resounding political defeat of white power in the city of St. Petersburg. Just a few days before the city was attempting to wipe out the Uhuru Movement and kill our leadership in the attempt to crush our people's resistance. They wanted to make sure that TyRon Lewis remains one of the millions of nameless, faceless Africans that white power has ruthlessly murdered. Now the City o f St. Petersburg was forced to back down, encircled by the ring of support of from the whole African community for the struggle of the African working class.

The failure to crush the Uhuru Movement means that TyRon Lewis would come back to haunt them in the heroic resistance of the African working class.

The city's miserable failure to crush our rebellion is what brought about its fracturing and its immanent collapse. Split between warring internal fractions, the police department was becoming a roving, band of renegades and rogues completely out of control of Police Chief Darrel Stephens. Stephens is now in total disrepute with the white population which believes that he is a punk and that the military defeat of the police by the African masses is his fault.

In addition to this, the mayor who is up for re-election in February of 1997, is also under attack by the white population and elements of a city council which has split into hostile camps.

The tourist economy which St. Petersburg depends on for its income is at risk because of the international attention it has received because it has been rocked by two major African uprisings in a month.

We cannot overly stress that the reason why this victory was possible is that there exists a revolutionary party of the African working class in St. Petersburg which is closely connected to the struggling masses here. The leadership of this Party and the unbreakable faith that the people have in our Party and the faith we have in the people is what has the white rulers trembling in fear.

Ours is not some fly-by-night movement, it is one that has won the love and respect of the people because for 30 uninterrupted years we have defended their interest selflessly and uncompromisingly.

These thirty years of the tireless, uninterrupted work of by our Party here in St. Petersburg is what has produced a struggle more powerful than those in Los Angeles, Miami Leland, Mississippi where African workers did not have the benefit of a revolutionary movement or a program and strategy to put power in their hands. As a consequence, the people in these places were defenseless against the maneuvers of white power and its Negro lackeys who work to ensure that our people are made to pay a dear price for our resistance, while no meaningful victories were won.

Furthermore, of the many lessons to be won from our struggle the most important is the fact that revolutionaries must be armed with revolutionary stamina, patience and tenacity. Our Party was born after the Black Revolution of the '60s had been military defeated by the U.S. government. The sole purpose for our existence was to rebuild our defeated movement. We have worked tirelessly for the past 30 years in St. Petersburg, Florida, where our Party was founded, and all throughout the country. All this time, we have struggled to bring the African masses back into political life after having seen our leaders murdered and our movements crushed with the most relentless violence.

During these long lulls in political activity, which exists between periods of revolution and resistance, the role of the revolutionary party is to survive, remain on the ground, fasten firm its connection with struggling masses and keep the questions of revolution before them until the period of revolutionary struggle and massive upheavals returns. Once conditions are ripe, and accident can spark the struggle which will bring the walls of white power tumbling down. The revolutionary party must be there to lead once this happens.

For more than 24 years our Party has played such a role. Now, the period of Black Revolution and resistance has returned. The rebellion of African workers in St. Petersburg, Florida has ushered in a new era of organized resistance. In one swift, violent storm, the African workers of St. Petersburg has changed the terms of black freedom struggle in the U.S., giving birth to a powerful new force that the world must reckon with.