In this episode, we will discuss a conversation between Assata Shakur and the New African Women’s Task Force, which is a unit of the New Afrikan People’s Organization, which can be found in Thandisizwe Chimurenga’s book Some of Us Are Brave: Interviews and Conversations with Sistas in Life and Struggle (Vol 2): https://darajapress.com/publication/some-of-us-are-brave-vol-2-interviews-and-conversations-with-sistas-in-life-and-struggle/?srsltid=AfmBOopYZfjg-vXpsjnz_sCDvSi_yH0oRuM6sLmgPoPR7q_miIpaMSz4
In this 1993 presentation, given in Havana, Assata Shakur shared some of her reflections about sexism and homophobia and the negative impact they have on revolutionary organizing. She did so with suggestions on ways that these issues can be combatted, and the role that Black women can play in that struggle.
A viewer asked us to bring this perspective from Assata into the discussion to supplement the observations of Dhoruba Bin Wahad in his piece in 1977, which Orisanmi Burton read aloud on our conversation this past Friday: https://youtu.be/MFBMRhtcBfw?si=Bv3SM4uRZjjtKd1I
Here is the full statement from Dhoruba from 1977: https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/BLA/513.BLA.WhyAssataMustbeSupported.pdf
Thandisizwe Chimurenga is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, CA. She is a former Assistant Editor of the LA‑Watts Times newspaper and a former reporter and co-anchor for Free Speech Radio News and the KPFK Evening News (Pacifica). She has been a commentator for Hard Knock Radio, a daily public affairs show for the Hip-Hop generation heard on KPFA Radio (Pacifica-Berkeley) and has been recognized as a “Champion of National News Reporting” by the San Francisco BayView Newspaper, Block Report Radio and the County of San Francisco, as well as New America Media for “Outstanding Reporting on Health and Health Care.”
A writer and creator or co-creator of grassroots community media (newspapers, cable TV, radio) for over 20 years, she co‑founded Some of Us Are Brave: A Black Women’s Radio Program with others in 2003. Her activism has ranged from electoral organizing; anti-police terror work; freedom for political prisoners and prisoners of war; to organizing against violence against women. Her first book, No Doubt: The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant, was independently published in 2014.
In addition to both volumes of Some of Us Are Brave: Interviews and Conversations with Sistas in Life and Struggle, Thandisizwe also recently co-authored What We Stood For: The Story of a Revolutionary Black Woman with Deborah Jones.
She is currently the host of Rootwork: Getting Down to the Roots, a show of analysis, news and interviews airing on KPFK and the Black Liberation Media platform: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7_X-VeroWRteIAMq1peXy39nKN2wkgbS&feature=shared
To support our work please contibute to our patreon: https://www.patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
