The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) is located in 57 cities and 23 states of the United States, no less than eight countries (US, Canada, Grenada, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Sierra Leone, and England) and three continents (North America, Africa, and Europe, as well as the Caribbean).
InPDUM is the oldest mass organization of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP). InPDUM was organized to defend the democratic rights of the African community and to bring the masses of African people back into political life following the military defeat of the African Revolution.
InPDUM in its current formation is the direct outgrowth of the People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (PDUM) organized as a local mass organization in Oakland, California in 1989 and the National People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM) in Chicago, Illinois in 1991.
Our name was changed to the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement at our annual convention in May 2001. This name change reflected the expansion of NPDUM Canada and Britain. In September 2001, InPDUM organized its first membership base in Occupied Azania, commonly known as South Africa.
APSP National Director of Organization Chimurenga Selembao, then InPDUM President, was a member of the Durban 400. The Durban 400 was a collective of African organizations that helped produce the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) at the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa in early September 2001. InPDUM organized and brought the demand for reparations into the international arena.
How the Uhuru Movement grew in South Africa
InPDUM does not attend events as spectators – we always go into events with the intent of organizing. As we say, “Never leave empty-handed.” Even before the trip to the Durban conference, InPDUM had gone to South Africa with the objective of branch building. Upon his return to the U.S. on September 9, 2001, Director Chimurenga successfully organized the first InPDUM branches in Durban and Johannesburg. Some of the members who initially organized InPDUM South Africa were members of the Pan-Africanist Congress Youth League.
In December 2002, Chairman Omali Yeshitela delivered the historic keynote speech for the Eighth Congress of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) which was held in Umtata in the Eastern Cape. This presentation is published in Omali Yeshitela Speaks under the title “Izwe Lethu i Afrika! Build the Azania Front of the African Revolution.”
In October 2003, Chairman Omali Yeshitela published the article “The Crisis of Pan-Africanism: Unity and Struggle with the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania” in The Burning Spear. This article identified the long history between the APSP and the PAC.These screenings are an important form of anti-colonial work. They take the productions out of the control of the colonial bourgeoisie as well as the purely intellectual arenas of the African petty bourgeoisie in a process that Secretary-General Luwezi Kinshasa has called “de-bourgeoisification.” Organizing anti-colonial film screenings is thus an important part of building the anti-colonial free speech movement. Using these films as outreach tools allows us to break through the colonial superstructure. They build our membership base. These events allow us to point a clear way forward for the masses.
Party influence in Southern Africa extends to the early 1970s
The APSP organized the first Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) support work in the United States in the early 1970s. In May 1974, the APSP and ZANU organized African Liberation Day together in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is through this work that the ZANU slogan “We are our own liberators” came into popularity amongst the African independence movement in the United States.
Our work with the PAC extended just as far back. In “The Crisis of Pan-Africanism,” Chairman Omali notes that in the 1970s, the APSP worked with Elizabeth Sibeko, the widow of assassinated PAC leader David Sibeko, in Atlanta. We reprinted speeches of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. We led the US-based commemorations of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre.
The APSP worked with PAC representative Pulede Shoba in Oakland, California, and the Oakland Uhuru House served as the PAC’s US headquarters. The APSP also worked with the PAC in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida.
The APSP spoke on behalf of the PAC to the United Nations on several occasions. A PAC representative spoke at the APSP’s first congress in Oakland in 1981.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mxolisi “Ace” Mgaxshe of the PAC held dual membership in the APSP. On Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11, 1987, Ace participated in the Walk Against Genocide and the subsequent Conference Against Racism in Oakland, California. Ace’s presentation “The Struggle for Black Power in Azania!” is reprinted in the APSC publication “There Can Be No Peace on a Foundation of US Genocide.”
All of this lays bare the lies that anyone besides ourselves has influenced our struggle for freedom, our demands for reparations to African people, and our intent on charging the US with genocide.
Offices in South and West Africa reflect our history, leadership
This is only a snippet of the work the Party and InPDUM has done on the continent. Future articles could extol our activity in West Africa as well as work extension into Central Africa and East Africa. We worked with revolutionary forces from Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Ghana, the Congo, and elsewhere.
The forward trajectory of African Internationalism has led the way and aided our growth on the Continent.
InPDUM has opened offices in Sierra Leone and in Msogwaba, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Both offices were donated to the Uhuru Movement.
This represents the unity of the African working class and peasantry with the Uhuru Movement and African Internationalism on the Continent. It shows the leadership we have established, even in the face of neocolonialism, sellouts, and the billions of dollars of foreign aid that are meant to destabilize African self-determination.
InPDUM has decades of experience with our leaders in South Africa. Morlai Conteh leads the work of the Uhuru Movement in West Africa from Sierra Leone. His experience with the Uhuru Movement nears twenty years. In South Africa, Comrade Asa Anpu and Director Tafarie Mugeri have spent almost a decade each inside the Uhuru Movement.
As Africa continues to rise and push towards freedom, the burning spear that we have lit will continue to lead the way. Build a branch of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement in your area.
Join InPDUM today at InPDUM.org