'Millions in Harlem March' aims to stop US, NATO warmaking in Libya

BY SAEED SHABAZZ

FinalCall.com NEW YORK -

Activists representing a broad coalition of anti-war organizations, the Nation of Islam, the political left, Islamic organizations and a plethora of grassroots community organizations recently stood together on the stage of the Assembly

Hall at the Riverside Church, proclaiming that “all roads lead to Harlem” for the Aug. 13 “Millions in Harlem March” to stop the bombing of Libya.

“Where are we going to be on Aug. 13?” asked Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, the main sponsors of

the Riverside Church event. “In Harlem!” the standing-room-only crowd shouted back.

“President Barack Obama never believed that his actions against Libya could galvanize the movement that will be in the streets of Harlem on Aug. 13,” said Abdul Akbar Muhammad, the international representative of the Nation of Islam, in response to a question from The Final Call. Marching alongside of the Nation of Islam the second Saturday in August will be members of the “White Left and other progressives, Pan Africanists, Black grassroots organizations and national Islamic organizations,” he added.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan will be the keynote speaker at the Harlem march. “Min. Farrakhan will deliver a dynamic speech from 110th Street to 125th Street,” said Mr. Muhammad. The march will start at 110th Street.

The United Nations Security Council March 17 passed resolution 1973 by a vote of 10 in favor with five abstentions, authorizing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to begin a “no-fly zone” over Libyan air space, alleging President Muammar Gadhafi was targeting civilians in the North African nation.

Some Libyans had begun anti-Gadhafi demonstrations in February in the city of Benghazi, which turned into armed rebellion. The UN offered no proof

Libya’s leader was killing unarmed civilians, though he vowed to fight those who had taken up arms against the government.

The U.S. and France March 18 started bombing so-called military targets, but the damage done by a “peace effort,” according to some observers, was more costly than what the Libyan leader had been accused of. Then came attacks on personal compounds that killed Libyan officials as well as a son of Col. Gadhafi and his grandchildren. NATO bombs hit the home of Libya’s leader at least twice as Western nations declared he had to go, pushing a policy of regime change.

Cynthia McKinney, a six-term former congresswoman from Georgia, was the keynote speaker for the Riverside Church rally. She told The Final Call she agreed with Mr. Muhammad’s assessment. “This will galvanize public opinion, as

people see this as being important to them. Obama certainly stumbled this time,” referring to the president’s continued support for the NATO bombing of Libya. According to news outlets, the Obama administration is sending $10 million a day to NATO for the bombing of Libya.

Ms. McKinney had been on an 11-city tour telling packed audiences about her experiences in Tripoli in the

early days of the NATO/UN aggression. “There is definitely a buzz in the streets around Aug.

13,” said Larry Holmes of the Newark-based Bail Out the People Not the Banks movement. “Expect people to be in the streets of Harlem in numbers,” he said.

Information about the street mobilization for the march may be found at http://www. millionsmarchharlem.com. There are organizing teams in all five New York boroughs that have saturated

Volume 2, Issue 31 2011

Bro. Muammar Gadhafi and Nelson Mandela.

'Millions in Harlem March' aims to stop US, NATO warmaking in Libya 2

neighborhoods with green posters announcing the march.

“The people are very excited about the march, and Min. Louis Farrakhan as the keynote speaker is great. We are going to fill up Malcolm X Boulevard,” said one volunteer.

During a June 15 press conference at a hotel across the street from the United Nations, Min. Farrakhan told the media the “United Nations, U.S.-sponsored, NATO-led bombing of the North African country of Libya” was the work of “a coalition of demons,” governments who have joined together to assassinate Col. Gadhafi.

But even some who voted for the initial resolutions and allowed the resolutions to pass have expressed reservation, if not outright regret. The African Union, in particular, has been calling for and working for a negotiated settlement only to be disregarded by Western nations intent on putting a new Libyan government in place.

The South African ambassador to the UN, Baso Sangqu, told the 15-member Security Council July 28 that his country’s delegation “echoes the African Union demand for an immediate pause in the fighting and in the NATO bombing.”

“We have noted the calls that ‘Gaddafi must go.’ We maintain that such statements do not bring us closer to a political solution,” the South African ambassador said. South Africa is occupying a rotating seat on the Security Council and supported the initial resolutions.

In a speech that was not widely covered by the media, Ambassador Sangqu said, “South Africa remains concerned about the implementation of resolutions 1970 and 1973. Taking sides in an internal conflict situation to institute regime change in Libya sets a dangerous precedent that will surely damage the credibility of the Security Council.”

“Clearly action focused on a military solution has not had its intended purpose; instead it has worked to destabilize the country even further,” he added.

Gabon and Nigeria also initially voted yes on resolutions 1970 and 1973, but the African Union has

strongly condemned the bombing of any African nation.

The UN Secretary General’s special envoy to Libya announced July 26 through a press office that the “two sides remain far apart on reaching agreement on a political solution.” The two sides are the Gadhafi government and the rebel Transnational Council, which the U.S., France, Italy, Britain have recognized as the legitimate government of Libya.

The two sides, however, “have reaffirmed their desire to continue to engage with the UN in the search for a solution,” said special envoy Abdel-Elah Al-Khatib, a member of Jordan’s parliament. Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Al-Mahmoud reiterated his government’s previous positions against the NATO

air strikes and against the removal of Libya’s president.

“There comes a time when people have no alternative but resistance,” Viola Plummer, co-founder of the December 12th Movement, one of the sponsoring organizations for the Harlem march, said July 30.

“This march will revitalize the Pan African movement. It will broaden our people’s world view and demonstrate the need for Africans to unite in our own political and economic interests internationally,” she added.

“We must expose the UN Security Council machinations, Western imperialism; the attack on Black people in the U.S. and all collaborations at every turn,” Ms. Plummer said.

March organizers say the Harlem event has garnered worldwide attention. One dignitary supporting the march is Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockman, a former Nicaraguan foreign minister and the 63rd president of the UN General Assembly.

During his speech at the press conference announcing the march, Father Brockman said the event was important in light of how the media

“systemically deceived” the American people. Meanwhile the killing of a major rebel commander

by compatriots raised questions about how the group could stay together and raised again reports that

A giant image of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi is unveiled at the Green Square in central Tripoli, Libya, July 22. Photo: EPA/STR

Bro. Muammar Gadhafi and sister bodyguards.

'Millions in Harlem March' aims to stop US, NATO warmaking in Libya   3  

elements of Al-Qaeda were heavily involved in the rebel effort. (See related story on page 12 of The Final Call.)

The Chinese news service Xinhuanet reported July 31 NATO’s claim of bombing three satellite dishes in Tripoli to “stop” what was labeled “terror broadcasts” by President Gadhafi. However, there are Twitter messages, also July 31, that say Libya television is still on the air.

Just before the Aug. 1 start of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and prayer, NATO bombs struck Tripoli, and officials in Brussels would not rule out more strikes—though they were worried about a possible backlash in the Muslim world about strikes during the sacred month. “Tripoli shook with the sound of several explosions as NATO warplanes roared overhead doing what they have been doing since March, striking at what are supposedly Al Qathafi strategic infrastructure, particularly in the Libyan capital, Tripoli,” the Tripoli Post reported. “In normal times, much of the economy in Muslim countries world-wide shuts down as everyone enters a

30-day period of all-day fasting, prayer and the strict avoidance of conflict. But for Libyans this year it is an altogether different proposition. Libyans worry about sanctions and NATO strikes during this month.”

“There is an ongoing armed internal conflict as the rebels from the eastern part of the country battle on in order to reach their aim, of toppling or forcing Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi to step down from his high chair. They are involved in a battle that is barely making progress at the best of times, and with NATO forces, attempting to bomb Al Qathafi out of office,” the English-language publication said.

“The NATO alliance thought it could finish it off before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in time for a new government to take shape. They failed and this month could become a perilous black hole threatening to undermine their whole campaign,” the Tripoli Post observed Aug. 1. “Muslims are not allowed to fight amongst themselves during Ramadan; they are also not allowed to attack another nation. However, they will fight back if they are attacked first, they are allowed to do that.”

Wall Street’s Ugly Beginning

Wall Street, the financial center of the world, has always been the central trading point in Manhattan. Fearful of Indian and British attacks, Peter Stuyvesant forced his Black captives to clear the dense underbrush and erect a wall which stretched 2,340 feet around the early Dutch settlement. They also cut down brush and trees on what is now Broad Street and planted corn, beans, and other vegetables for their own use. The Dutch Church erected a building at 20 South William Street, to house the enslaved Africans.

A slave market was established at Wall Street in 1711 to be a “place where Negroes and Indians could be bought, sold, or hired.” The Wall Street Market comprised various slave markets named after prominent families involved in slave trading, including the

Crommelins, Schuylers, Van Zandts, and Waltons. Anne Hartell romanticizes this miserable scene in the expiatory shadings typical of white historians:

The public slave market at the foot of Wall Street slip was a busy place. Auctioneers shouted prices, urging higher bids in persuasive tones. Buyers—farmers from Long Island or, perhaps, the foremen of

well-to-do plantations—wandered through the crowds looking over the coal black newcomers from Africa, who were standing bewildered and dejected on the auction blocks. From the waterfront drifted the noises of sloops unloading,—the chants of negro stevedores, the rumble of molasses kegs rolling down a gangplank, a sailor’s fight before a tavern. And the singing of the anvil drifted up from the forge on the nearby Strand of the East River. In such an atmosphere the Africans found their new masters.

From the book

Hidden History of New York:

A Guide for Black Folks

 

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If The Civilized Man Fails To Perform His Duty What Must Be Done?

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad

You must know that you have not been rightly civilized. No one can enslave another who has equal education (knowledge). My people lack science of the right kind. Allah is here to give you and me a superior knowledge of things and a country to ourselves.

Separation of the so-called Negroes from their slave-masters’ children is a must. It is the only solution to our problem. It was the only solution according to the Bible, for Israel and the Egyptians, and it will prove to be the only solution for America and her slaves, whom she mockingly calls her citizens without granting citizenship. We must keep this in our minds at all times; we are actually being mocked.

I think it is a disgrace to us for ever being satisfied with only a servant’s part. Should not we, as a people, want for ourselves what other civilized

nations have? It takes a true friend or friends to help another or others to enjoy equal freedom, justice and equality. Today for the first time in our history we have that true friend in Allah (who came in the person of Master Fard Muhammad) and the Nation of Islam, if we only would submit and accept Him.

It is written (Rev. 14:1) that 144,000 of us will accept and return to our God and people and the rest of my people will go down with the enemies of Allah. For this sad prophesy of the loss of my people I write what I am writing, hoping perhaps that you may be able to beat the old prophets’ predictions by making the truth so simple that a fool can understand it. You must be rightly civilized. You must go back to your own people and country, but not one of you can return with what you have. You must know that this is the time of our separation and the judgment of this world (the Caucasian race) that you and I have known. Therefore, Allah has said to me that the time is ripe for you and me to accept our own (the whole planet earth). What are you waiting for? The destruction? Come, let us reason together, but you cannot until you have a thorough knowledge of self. Who are you waiting for to teach you the knowledge of self? Surely not your slave-masters who blinded you to the knowledge. The white race’s civilization will never work for us.

Excerpt from Message to the Blackman in America

Pure Black Intelligence