International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement

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International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
Chairperson	Omali Yeshitela
International President	Chimurenga Waller
Founded	April 1991
Headquarters	St. Petersburg, FL
Political ideology	African Internationalism
International affiliation	African Socialist International (ASI)

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (usually abbreviated as InPDUM) is a mass organization under the leadership of the African working class. InPDUM was created to be a democratic rights organization in the forefront for the political, economic and social self-determination of African people.

Contents 1 InPDUM History 1.1 The InPDUM 12-Point Platform 2 INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] InPDUM History

InPDUM is a grassroots organization, led by the black working-class community. It was founded in 1991 in Chicago by the African People's Socialist Party. InPDUM membership is open to anyone united with democracy for the African community and that self-determination is the highest expression of democracy.

InPDUM is known and respected around the world for demanding reparations to African people for slavery and colonialism, demanding an end to the police containment of our communities, pushing for real economic development instead of more police, protecting the dignity of our children as intelligent, capable and talented human beings, and taking the right stand on many other issues that face the African community, even when it is unpopular to do so.

[edit] The InPDUM 12-Point Platform

1. We demand National Democratic Rights and Self Determination for African people in the U.S.
2. We Demand Community Control of the Police in the African Community and the Immediate Withdrawal of the Terroristic Police and Military Forces from the African Community.
3. We Demand Community Control of the Schools and Mandatory African History in Public Schools.
4. We Demand African Community Control of Health Care.
5. We Demand Community Control of Housing
6. We Demand the Removal of Parasitic Merchants and Slumlords from the African Community.
7. We Demand an End to the Colonial Court and Prison Systems which have the Majority of African Men Incarcerated, on Probation or Parole, and the Immediate Release of all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War.
8. We Demand an End to the Theft, Kidnapping, Sale, Abuse and Removal of African Children from their Communities under the Genocidal Foster Care System.
9. We Demand an End to the Political and Social Oppression and Economic Exploitation of African Women.
10. We Demand Reparations for African People.
11. We Demand a United Nations Supervised Plebiscite to Determine the Will of the African Community in the U.S. as to their National Destiny.
12. We Demand an End to the Political Economy of the Counterinsurgency; the Parasitic Relationship that Benefits the White Population with Millions of Dollars for Jobs, Resources and a Stabilized Economy off of the U.S. Counterinsurgency (war) on African People in the U.S.

[edit] INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT

InPDUM's first national president was Akua Njeri. Wife of slain Illinois Black Panther Party Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton Sr. She served in this capacity from the founding convention in 1991 to 2000.

InPDUM's second and current national president has been Chimurenga Waller since 2000. His political involvement has spanned more than twenty years.

Chimurenga led a contingent of activists to the first NPDUM convention in Chicago in April of 1991 and returned from that meeting to help build a branch of the organization in St. Petersburg.

Political Awakening

Born on April 12, 1951 Chimurenga cut his political teeth at the age of 17, as a founding member of the Junta of Militant Organizations (JOMO), led and started by his internationally known, Black Liberation Movement leader, older brother, Omali Yeshitela (the former Joseph Waller).

At an early age growing up in poor but stable Black community in the majority white tourist city, of St. Petersburg, Florida, he recognized, something was wrong with the dilapidated conditions of public facilities for African people. He just never understood why it that way. When he joined Jomo in 1968 it was like a great political awakening. President Waller's stint with JOMO began during the racially charged City Sanitation Department strike of the summer of 1968 in St. Petersburg involving mostly Black workers.

Chimurenga, along with other members of JOMO , participated in the almost daily, marches for better working conditions and pay for the sanitation workers. In 1972 Chimurenga Waller got married had children and was trying settle into a life as an ordinary, political bystander. This episode lasted for the next ten years. During those ten years Waller read and studied the work of his brother Omali who was becoming an accomplished revolutionary writer and organizer.

In 1978 he earned a degree from St. Petersburg Junior College, and attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida from 1979 until 1981 but did not complete his degree. During his years at the University his reignited his political commitment and participated in campus organizing and helped organize a demonstration in Gainesville in 1980, defending the rights of Iranian students, who were being victimized by white nationalists students all over the U.S.during the so called "Iranian Hostage Crisis".

Back in the Struggle

In 1982 President Waller, was given the name Chimurenga by his brother Omali. It was also at this time that Chimurenga joined the African People's Socialist Party. He came back to St.Petersburg in 1981 and remained a member for the next nine years serving on the Central Committee, as the Southeast Regional Representative.

Also in 1982 he helped bring a Florida delegation to the First "World Tribunal On Reparations for African People in the U.S.", and gave testimony about the crimes being committed by the U.S. government and the state of Florida against African people throughout the U.S. South.

By 1990 the African People's Socialist Party had begun organizing for the founding convention of the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM). Waller had been recently organizing and leading the African Community Defense Committee local organization in St. Petersburg.

Chimurenga led a contingent of activists to the first NPDUM convention in Chicago in April of 1991 and returned from that meeting to help build a branch of the organization in St. Petersburg.

InPDUM Leadership

The organization faced a great challenge in October 1996 when 18 year old Tyron Lewis was brutally murdered by St. Petersburg police after a traffic stop.

The murder of Lewis result in two rebellions in the city. One of them coming after police surrounded the NPDUM meeting house and attacked with tear gas as women and children panicked choked from the thick gas.

These two rebellions and subsequent struggle of NPDUM to unify the African population and give a voice to the long ignored African workers and poor people catapulted leaders of NPDUM in to new position of prominence and influence. Chimurenga was treasurer in the explosive period of 1996 then became President of the local in 1997, then went on to build a statewide organization and acted as State President. Off of the influence built by NPDUM between 1996 and 1998, the city of St. Petersburg invited the organization to participate in a local government volunteer committee called the Citizens Review Committee. By this time Chimurenga had become well known for his organizing against police brutality.

When Chimurenga accepted a Mayoral appointment to the Citizens Review Committee, a powerless group that reviewed complaint cases against the police department, a firestorm of criticism came from various circles including the Police Benevolent Association, two City Council persons, and a St. Petersburg Times Newspaper columnist who lamented that the Review committee need an African that was more "mainstream" and that did not "hate" the police. Chimurenga and NPDUM organized to stop three attempts to have him removed from the committee during his three year tenure. He used the televised forum to challenge police brutality and improper conduct. Although he was initially seen as a political novelty on this committee, he eventually won election as a sub-committee chairman.

Forward Motion, leading the Struggle in the 21st Century

In April 2001 the NPDUM became the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and during that same year President, Chimurenga Waller, has organized a branch in London, England and participated in the United Nations sponsored "World Conference Against Racism, Zenophobia, And Related Intolerances".

As a result of the work of President Waller at the World Conference Against Racism, that was held in Durban South Africa, a branch of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement is now in South Africa. Waller broadened his influence as he entered into electoral politics in two elections. Both on a widely-known radical platform. In the first, a county-wide election for school board, Waller ran on a platform of community control of schools and got 10,000 votes. In the later, a city-wide election for city council, Waller ran on a platform of economic development and got 9,000 votes. Chimurenga Waller continues to move toward his vision of an internationally known organization when he travels back to England and Africa later in 2002.

[edit] See also

• Uhuru
• Omali Yeshitela
• Black Power
• Dead Prez
• African internationalism
• African Socialist International

[edit] External links

• International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
• Uhuru Movement
• APSP Website
• Official Website of African Socialist International
• Dead Prez Lets Get Free, a Dead Prez album featuring recordings of Omali Yeshitela