64367108 new afrikan liberation front nalf is launched a naim historical document reprint

8/3/2019 64367108 New Afrikan Liberation Front NALF is Launched a NAIM Historical Document Reprint

1/4

Page 1 of 4

NEW AFRIKAN LIBERATION FRONT (NALF) IS LAUNCHED A NAIM Historical Document Reprint

RBG Communiversity

NEW AFRIKAN LIBERATION FRONT (NALF)

IS LAUNCHEDReprint from the NALF Decision Making Body

Also see:http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/2000rad/New_Afrikan_Liberation_Front_Statement_

Black Nationalist Organizations Unite at Historic Atlanta Summit

After two years of negotiation, representatives of several political prisoner defense committees,women's groups, labor organizations, human rights groups and community-based formations metin Atlanta, Georgia, on August 18-19, 1995, to hammer out a set of working principles andagendas to unite the various Black Nationalist political tendencies within the U.S.

The New Afrikan Liberation Front (NALF) is in many respects the response to the politicaldemand made by such celebrated Republic of New Afrika, Black Panther Party, and BlackLiberation Army prisoners of war as Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Sekou Odinga, Geronomo Pratt, andJalil Muntaqin. These freedom fighters called for the formation of an umbrella organizationwhich could coordinate the varied political activities of the constituent bodies in what is oftenreferred to as the Black Nationalist community.

"The objective of the NALF is to politically engage and organize the nationalist community intoan effective foil to both Black liberal and Black conservative political leadership today,"explained Herman Ferguson, a founding member and head of the Administrative Unit of theNALF. "We stand as a fighting political alternative to both the Jesse Jacksons and the Clarence

Thomases who we feel mislead and betray the political aspirations of oppressed Black people inthis country," Ferguson said.

The NALF coalesced around the slogan "Black Power, Land and Independence." As such, eachconstituent member of the Front is committed to attaining "self-determination for thedescendants of enslaved Africans-whom the Front denotes as 'New Afrikans'-and internationalrecognition of the New Afrikan nation's right to sovereignty and political independence."

The NALF will initiate its coordinated activities by launching a nationwide campaign to pressurethe Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to open congressional investigations and hearings on therole of the FBI and other police agencies in the assault on the Black Power Movement during the

1960s and '70s. Under the FBI's COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) hundreds ofBlack activists across the U.S. were murdered, jailed, or driven into political exile.COINTELPRO was a coordinated government campaign to destroy the Black nationalistmovement. The NALF seeks internationally-recognized prisoner-of-war (POW) status for thescores of activists who still remain behind bars today. It also demands amnesty for these unjustlyimprisoned Black men and women. "Given the congressional attention given the FBI's botchedraid on the white supremacist encampment of Randy Weaver-the government granted a $3million our-of-court settlement for the killing of Weaver's wife and son-Black legislators would
http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/2000rad/New_Afrikan_Liberation_Front_Statement_http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/2000rad/New_Afrikan_Liberation_Front_Statement_http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/2000rad/New_Afrikan_Liberation_Front_Statement_http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/2000rad/New_Afrikan_Liberation_Front_Statement_


2/4

Page 2 of 4


RBG Communiversity

be remiss in remaining silent about similar government atrocities which were and continue to bedeliberately carried out against Black activists," said Ferguson. The NALF recently sent arepresentative to the Beijing, China, International Women's Conference as part of its ongoingcampaign to internationalize the struggle of Black people in the U.S. and to expose thesystematic human rights abuses perpetrated against Black people here today. Likewise, the

NALF has put its case before the United Nations and human rights conferences in Europe andAfrica.

The New Afrikan Liberation Front is optimistic about the outcome of its ongoing activities.Explained Ferguson, "Many people believed that Eastern Europe would remain under Sovietdomination forever. But in the space of only a few years, nobody even thinks about the SovietUnion anymore. It's gone. That tells us something. For just as the U.S. had dominated NewAfrikans, Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Hawaiians, and others for centuries, it doesn't haveto be that way forever."

Ferguson added that "If we work hard and take care of the day-to-day needs of New Afrikans,while fighting for a revolutionary nationalist political agenda, then we can win. There will be

freedom for the New Afrikan nation."

Principles of Unity of the NALF

1. Land. The primary objective of the NALF is self-determination through a national liberationstruggle for land (territory within the historic southeastern Black Belt), independence andreparations.

2. Who is the enemy? For over 400 years, our nation has been enslaved, first by the Europeansettlers in North America, and currently we are colonized by the political descendants of thosesettlers, represented by the government of the United States of America. We are united infighting for the destruction of imperialism and white supremacy, the twin evils of our national

oppression which is forced on our Nation by the U.S. imperialist State.

3. Self-defense/Armed Struggle. We recognize the right to self-defense as well as the right toarmed struggle for self-determination.

4. Political Prisoners/POWs/Exiles. We seek amnesty for prisoners of war, political prisoners,and exiles as a non-negotiable self-determination demand.

5. Social liberation. The fight against racial, sexist, class, and all forms of social oppression isfundamental to New Afrikan/Black self-determination.

6. Unity and autonomy of organizations-methods of resolving contradictions. We accept the

leadership and discipline of the NALF as determined by a consensus of its membershiporganizations. The ideological integrity and autonomy of each organization within the NALF ismutually respected. We will practice constructive criticism and self-criticism for the purpose ofresolving contradictions and internal differences.

7. A New Afrikan Consciousness Movement. We recognize that culture is a weapon ofresistance. In that light we are committed to building a movement to develop the nationalconsciousness and culture of the New Afrikan people.


3/4

Page 3 of 4


RBG Communiversity

8. Our cultural symbols. We recognize the Red, Black and Green flag, the new Afrikan creed,the New Afrikan Declaration of Independence and the Code of Umoja as the unifying historicaland cultural symbols of our New Afrikan Liberation Front and our independence movement.

For information: Herman Ferguson, P.O. Box 340084, Jamaica, NY 11434, (719) 949-515

An Unlikely Warrior:

The evolution of a

Black Nationalist

revolutionary

A bio/memoir of the life of

Herman Ferguson written byIyaluua Ferguson with Herman

Ferguson

312 pages with photos, endnotes and appendices

$19.95

Herman Ferguson, 90 years young, was a dedicatedcolleague of Malcolm X. Unlike the stereotypical

Malcolm X devotee, painted by the media of the timeas a ghetto dwelling sub-working class malcontent,Ferguson was the example of a successful, well-educated suburban family man who gravitated toMalcolm X in the social ferment of the early 1960s. Inthe process, he self-consciously sacrificed his Americandream for a Black revolutionary vision.

This book tells the story of Herman Ferguson's amazinglife, the twists and turns which led him from achildhood in North Carolina to the summit of Black

academia; through a personal war with the militaryestablishment to the Nazi submarine infested NorthAtlantic as a Merchant Marine seaman; through thecommunist influence of the labor movement to thePost-War euphoria of the 1950s; and professionalaccomplishment as a New York City school official.The book chronicles the journey of a seemingly All-

The Website: http://anunlikelywarrior.com/
http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/http://anunlikelywarrior.com/


4/4

Page 4 of 4


RBG Communiversity

American boy becoming a founding member of Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-AmericanUnity (OAAU) and an eyewitness to his leader's assassination in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom.

An Unlikely Warriormoves on to recount Ferguson's attempts to build upon and advance whathe understood as Malcolm's political legacy. Ferguson was rewarded for his efforts with a

concerted COINTELPRO campaign to criminalize his political activities. The Queens DistrictAttorney convinced an all-white male jury that Ferguson and his co-defendant, Arthur Harris,sought to kill civil rights leaders in hope of eliminating conservative leaders who wereimpediments to the Black revolutionary agenda. A summary conviction and seven-year prisonsentence followed in rapid sequence, The former assistant principal in turn fled the country andreappeared as Paul Adams, the revolutionary fugitive. He landed in Guyana, where he lived 19years as an exile.

Ferguson experienced a meteoric rise through the Guyanese bureaucracy. He became a leadingofficial of the Ministry of Education. He helped found the Guyanese National Service, a type ofJobs Corp, eventually winning the post of Assistant Director General of the Guyana National

Service

no meager accomplishment for an American outlaw. Ferguson retired with the rank ofLt Colonel in the Guyana Defense Force.

But for all of his Guyanese laurels, Ferguson longed to rejoin the political fight in the U.S.Against the advice of his wife, Herman Ferguson voluntarily returned to the U.S. in 1989 andwas immediately arrested at New York's JFK airport.

Today Herman Ferguson is a highly respected veteran of the Black liberation movement. He is,however, an unlikely revolutionary, a self-described "All-American Boy," who fought the evilsof fascism during WWII only to return to encounter its American variant alive and kicking afterthe flags and confetti of victory had been put away.

This biography/memoir, An Unlikely Warrior, is directed at students of the civil unrest of the1960s and particularly to young readers eager to explore the history of the Civil RightsMovement and the rise of the separatist ideology in the United States, the growth of the Republicof New Afrika, and the turbulent days of the late 1960s. Moreover, it speaks to the emotionalcost of political activism, its impact on families and supportive friends in the face of governmentrepression.

Video interview of Herman Fergusonabout Malcolm X.

2011, Herman and Iyaluua Ferguson [email protected]
http://www.vimeo.com/4915896http://www.vimeo.com/4915896mailto:mailto:mailto:mailto:http://www.vimeo.com/4915896

64367108 new afrikan liberation front nalf is launched a naim historical document reprint

Documents