The Hands Off Uhuru Fight Back Coalition stands in full and unconditional solidarity with our comrade member organizations Unión del Barrio (UdB) and the Association of Raza Educators (ARE) and the Liberated 2. We demand an end to all U.S. government attacks on the anti-colonial right to free speech for Mexican/Indigenous organizations.  

The Liberated 2 are Raza educators, Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona and Theresa Montano whose free speech is coming under attack for including on their ethnic studies programs statements of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Hands Off Uhuru Fight Back Coalition is composed of more than 40 organizations and individuals defending the Uhuru 3—Chairman Omali Yeshitela, leader of the African People’s Socialist party, along with Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, members of the African People’s Solidarity Committee. Hands Off Uhuru demands that all bogus charges be dropped on the Liberated 2.

The Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition is led by representatives of struggles affecting the working and toiling masses of the world whose right to anti-colonial free speech has come under attack. 

The Hands Off Uhuru Coalition is made up of African, Mexican, Indigenous and all other oppressed peoples and nations, and includes those in solidarity with these struggles, based on our free speech right to advocate for our freedom and liberation.

The Hands Off Uhuru Coalition is committed to deepening the long history of anti-colonial unity between African, Palestinian, Mexican, Indigenous and all colonized people in the struggle against colonialism.

We oppose the blatant attacks on the free speech rights of Africans, Palestinians, Indigenous people and all others, who are charged as “anti-Semites” for legitimate criticism of the ongoing genocide committed by the U.S.-backed colonial-settler state of Israel

The use of “Anti-Semitism” as a weapon against our struggles is nothing new, but in this recent period of intensifying anti-colonial Palestinian resistance and deepening counterinsurgency by the colonial state, we have seen a major escalation of these dangerous attacks on anti-colonial free speech.

The Uhuru Movement shares a fraternal bond with ARE and UdB that is almost 40 years old.  This bond was forged in defense of Mexican self-determination from ideological imperialist attacks. 

It was that attack which specifically revolved around the Raza community control of education.  ARE was formed in 1994, in the wake of the state attacks against Mexican and other communities from Latin America, primarily Proposition 187. 

For almost 30 years, ARE has led the education struggle as a democratic right to all.  This includes the leadership that ARE has assumed over the establishment of Ethnic Studies curricula and programs throughout California.  This is a campaign that has resonated throughout the US and internationally.

The charge that ARE has led, since 1994 represents a fracture in the colonial superstructure.  The struggle over Ethnic Studies represents efforts of colonized and oppressed people to move from the objects of the colonizer’s history to the subjects of their own history.  ARE has assisted in laying bare the reality of the colonial mode of production’s assault against Mexican, Africa, Arab, Filipino and all colonized people.  The colonial lies cannot withstand the anticolonial truth.  

The slanderous, bogus charges of “anti-semitism”  leveled against the Liberated 2 are a reactionary and counterinsurgency tactic intended to turn back the clock to a time when colonized people were meant to be seen but not heard.  However, we will not go backwards.

We stand arm-in-arm with our comrades from the Mexican/Indigenous national liberation movement and share the same fate..

On July 29, 2022 the U.S. government attacked the African People’s Socialist Party with a violent FBI attack on 7 offices and homes of APSP and Uhuru Movement in the most significant attack against the African Liberation Movement since the 1960s.  As part of these state attacks, the Uhuru 3 (Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party, Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee and Uhuru Solidarity Movement Chair Jesse Nevel) were indicted with the false charges of being agents of a foreign government in early May 2023 and face up to 15 years in prison. 

This attack on the Uhuru 3 has opened the door to other U.S. government attacks on the free speech rights of the voices of Palestinians, Mexican, and Indigenous and oppressed workers of the world.  

Thursday, December 14 at 4pm PT — Gather outside the federal courthouse in Los Angeles 

Make the demand that court drop the charges on the Liberated 2! 

Drop the Charges on the Uhuru 3! 

Forward to building the Anti-Colonial Free Speech movement. 

Touch One! Touch All! 

Venceremos! Uhuru!