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Omali Yeshitela

AFRICAN REVOLUTIONARY • POLITICAL THEORETICIAN POWERFUL SPEAKER • "LAST MAN STANDING"

“You have the emergence in human society of
this thing called the State.
What is the State?
The State is organized bureaucracy.
It is the police department…the Army, the Navy
It is the prison system, the courts.
The State is a repressive organization.
The reality is
the State becomes necessary
only at that juncture in human society
where it is split between those who have and those who ain't got!”

From “Police State,” on let’s get free! by Dead Prez

• Built the African Socialist International, an organization made up of African people in Africa, the U.S., the Caribbean and around the world to liberate and unite Africa and all its resources as the birthright of African working people everywhere. Its founding congress is scheduled for March 2008 in West Africa.
• Made reparations for African people a household word after he launched the first International Tribunal on Reparations for African People in New York in 1982. The Tribunal ruled that African people are owed $4.1 trillion in reparations for stolen labor alone. Twelve subsequent sessions of the tribunal have been held in various cities around the country. The latest session of the Tribunal will be held in Berlin, Germany in June 2007.

• 1966: Florida organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• 1967: Sentenced to 5 years for tearing down the racist mural that hung in the St. Petersburg, FL city hall
• 1968: Formed JOMO, the Junta of Militant Organizations and The Burning Spear newspaper
• 1972: Formed the African People's Socialist Party
• 1976: Launched successful campaign to Free Dessie Woods, sentenced to 22 years for defending herself against a white man who tried to rape her
• 1980: Formed African National Prison Organization
• 1982: Held First Tribunal on Reparations for African People in teh U.S. and formed the African National Reparations Organization
• 1984: Put the Community Control Housing Initiative on the ballot in Oakland, CA winning 25% of the vote
• 1990: Acquitted when brought to trial for defending African youth from police harassment
• 1991: Founded International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
• 1996: Led community fight-back after the police murder of 18 year old TyRon Lewis and the police attack on the Uhuru House
• 2001: Ran for mayor of St. Petersburg in 2001 winning all the black and mixed precincts but one
• 2001: Built Florida Alliance for Peace and Social Justice in 2001, the only African-led anti-war organization
• 2002: Keynote presentation at the Eighth Congress of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, Umtata, South Africa
• 2004: Consolidated the African Socialist International with the adoption of the Main Resolution
• 2006: Founded the All African People's Development and Empowerment Project
• 2007: Founded the African Internationalist Student Organization

• Umoja restaurant, St. Petersburg FL, 1970s
• Spear Graphics printing, Oakland CA, 1980s
• African Connection Bookstore, Louisville, KY, 1980
• Florida Black Voice newspaper, Gainesville, FL, 1981
• Uhuru House community centers, 1982
• Uhuru Bakery Café, Oakland CA, 1987
• Uhuru Furniture Stores, Oakland, Philadelphia and St. Petersburg, since 1989
• TyRon Lewis Community Gym and Fitness Center, since 1995
• Burning Spear Records, founded 2006
• Uhuru Radio and TV, 2006

• African Internationalism, Yeshitela’s political theory proving that capitalism was built on the enslavement of African people.
• Analyzed that the U.S. government's defeat of the Black Revolution of the 1960s, showing that the U.S. imposition of drugs into the African community and mass imprisonment constitute a counterinsurgency against the African population in the U.S.
• Proved that Africans are one people wherever they are located around the world.
• Shows that Africa and all its resources are the birthright of African people everywhere.

• The Burning Spear newspaper, 1968-present
• "Tactics and Strategy for Black Liberation," 1978
• The Struggle for Bread, Peace and Black Power, 1981
• Stolen Black Labor, 1982
• Reparations Now!, 1983
• A New Beginning, 1984
• Not One Step Backwards, 1984
• The Road to Socialism is Painted Black, 1987
• Izwe Lethu I Afrika, 1992
• The Politics of Black Revolution, first published 1989
• "Why I Became a Revolutionary," pamphlet, 1998
• Omali Yeshitela Speaks, 2005
• One Africa! One Nation!, 2006