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Today is May 18th. We're at Africa on the Avenue. My name is Daiki Tsumagari. Could you just tell me your name, where you are from? And like, why are you here today? Sure. Joseph. Um. Oh. Nico. Yeah. We're here today doing outreach for PACA or Pan-African Community Action, a group based in Southeast and, uh, seeking communal power for the people of Southeast.

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Uh, what brings you out today, I guess? Like what specifically about this event and then, like, what does this event mean to your organization? Is it an organization? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, basically, we're out here today—We are um—sorry, I have one. Well, yeah. So we're we're actually trying to get people to come to our African liberation, teach-in, uh—African Liberation Day teach-in basically, which essentially we'll be talking about the history of African Liberation Day, um, its inception in the 1950s by Kwame Nkrumah, uh, and how it was commemorating the independence of the African nations to from their colonial European like—colonial masters such as the French, the Dutch and the British. And so we'll be talking about that, but then also linking it back to the local struggle of domestic imperialism, how we are we do believe as an organization that we are colonized peoples within a settler colonial state. And so our relationship is a little bit different to the overall power structure. And we as African people—African meaning Black people, the diaspora more broadly—and that we have to, you know, understand our colonized relationship and why it's so important to uproot systems of oppression such as capitalism, um, white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, etc. because all of those are intertwined into oppressing not only the most marginalized, but even the most privileged that aren't directly benefiting from capitalism and have an access to means of production.

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Yeah. And yeah, just to sort of, I guess, summarize to say a few points. We're here today to, like I said before, to do outreach to connect with, uh, Africans, continental Africans, presumably Africans from elsewhere in the diaspora. And, uh, you know, as PACA we're trying to build a broad based organization. So that's part of that effort and us being here and us being at any event and, you know, DC or beyond. Tell me about your organization, like what you guys do. So you mentioned, uh, teach ins, like how are those set up. Where do you I'm assuming you bring in like speakers. Like what's the kind of process there? Sure. Um, we have regular what we call ASSG's Assata Shakur study group sessions every second and fourth Wednesday of the month at the Black Workers and Wellness Center across from the Anacostia metro station. We speak about various topics. And, uh, the ultimate campaign of PACA is community control of the police. We believe that, uh, the absence of police can only happen in a society in which there are no class divisions. And so insofar as there will exist, continue to exist, the police, the police are responsive to and, uh, cater to work on behalf of those in power. Of course, poor people, especially poor Africans, poor Black people don't have the power. So we are trying to build an organization, build a numerical strength that can, uh, assume power and thus have control of the police as those in power. So, yeah. And just to add on to that, you know, because, uh, it's very important, like a lot of people are scared of words like abolition and like, what does that mean? What does that look like? Because you, you know, we're always told that we need police or whatever, but it's also just really about who are these police accountable to? Who are these institutions accountable to? Right? Um, you know, and so it's not necessarily about having a community review board or somebody that just makes suggestions because we see suggestions always happening. And this doesn't even have to be, uh, about policing, although policing is really like an integral portion, because that's where the monopoly of violence from the state comes from. But you see the FTC dealing with like, monopolies right now, and they just make suggestions on what they could do to stop being a monopoly. They have no political power to even change fundamental systems that are like ultimately making life harder for all of us. So when we talk about community control, we want to be able to make sure that we can enforce policies that are that that we write the policies that community members write policies for police departments, that they can actually, uh, fire or at least go up against a police union when it comes to holding accountable officers that step out of line, that the officers actually come from the districts and aren't hired from the outside. And this also can go into other things like education, and it will bleed out. But getting the police institution is honestly just as important as, say, ending the apartheid in Israel. Right? Because it is all essentially the same thing. Um, the way that Palestinians are treated in Israel, uh, in the apartheid state, it's the same way that police, the MPD comes and gangs up on people in Southeast and profiles them because they just are the wrong type of person. You know, they're the poor person. They're the poor Black person, the poor Black Spanish person. And so all of these. Things are just very intertwined. And that's what we really want people to understand. And we are a massive a mass movement and we want to become that. But we do have to get people educated before we can even start talking about these things, because we've been propagandized to believe otherwise, that we only have two choices, that we can only do so much, that somebody that has to have that went through, you know, a master's degree in an institution based on Oppression College, right, that, you know, those are the only people that are qualified to lead our communities. But really anybody could we have that with like juries all the time where a random person is selected. So that's really just what like what we're talking about. We want we don't need as like the qualifications as much when it comes to community control. Because at the end of the day, we are all a part of the community. And if you want your community to make better decisions, and we need to politically educate as a community and organize together so we can make sure everybody is taken care of.

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And I just want to clarify, um, I wonder about the wording sort of. But if I could just go into the community control of the police campaign, essentially, you know, there are these districts in into which DC would be divided. Um, I'm sort of failing to remember. I think our idea of it is that DC is sort of redistrict. Um, people would have the option to keep the police force or not keep the police force, depending upon the experience with the police. Um, from there, we would politically educate the community because randomly, people from the community would be chosen to be on these boards that have, you know, hiring, firing power, you know, have the ability to determine priorities for this police force that they now have control of. But, uh, so it's not to put, uh, you know, uh, information out there that not that is not exactly aligned with PACA's official CCOP campaign. I would suggest that people go to paca.com, [pacapower.org] I believe that the CCP, CCP campaign is laid out in full detail there, and you can get the full, a full understanding of what PACA's vision of CCoP is. So as not to, you know, uh, mistakenly inform. So, yeah. Now, you both mentioned kind of being out here today at this event to kind of reach out to the African immigrant diaspora. Uh, and like, what I want to ask is, where do you see the connections between the African immigrant experience in America? Black Americans, uh, Americans of color, uh, like, what's the relationship like? What do you what do you want to see more in terms of solidarity? What do you think that's been done well? Well, solid solidarity, you know, um, and of course, we're African organization. But any oppressed people, you know, going back to the Black Panthers, the Black Panthers, as did SNCC, you know, show sympathy—show sympathy, express sympathy with the Vietnamese, um, show sympathy with Palestinians. So any oppressed peoples around the world, I mean, you know, Fred Hampton with the Rainbow Coalition. Uh, or maybe it's Rainbow Nation. I'm forgetting the exact word. But, you know, he was aligned with, uh, poor whites, with Puerto Ricans. So any oppressed peoples, but especially insofar as we are, you know, Africans on the continent, Africans in the US, we're African peoples, we, uh, they're similar problems we're going through, you know, again, understanding ourselves as a domestic colony. The occupying force here is the police, occupying force in Africa is, you know, Western armed forces and neocolonial forces that are being trained, uh, in the West. And, you know, of course, there's the connection in inadequate housing, poverty, food insecurity, so on and so forth. So just understanding these common struggles with Africans on the continent, Africans in Latin America, Africans wherever they be, but also more broadly, uh, oppressed peoples worldwide, whether that be Palestinians, whether that be, uh, Latin Americans, whether that be whoever, you know. So do we have any like open floor thoughts that we want to add? Uh—

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Um, really, you know, we're in election season right now. Um, a lot of people don't know what's going to happen, you know, especially in the next, uh, six, seven months. Uh, and really, we just need people to understand to not only like to dispel themselves with voter apathy, but that we need we need a third choice. Right? Um, and that this can happen. But you have to be involved and you have to organize within your community. And by organizing within your community, it does mean joining an organization, but it also means knowing the name of your next door neighbor. You know what I mean and who that is, so that when who you can call on if you need like not only salt, but if you need a hand. Right. Just making those relationships and those connections, um, that's just really important to building community and having more of a collective mindset. And as you do that, I mean, even if you just do something as simple as ask how much your coworker makes, right? We need to have this type of transparency to build a collective mindset, because so many things were like fought for with blood and sweat and tears from the labor movement, from the civil rights movement to now. Right. Like we they don't like we see what's happening in those encampments. They were taking their pound of flesh, and they will continue to take their pound of flesh. But if we're going to have to get if we're going to give it to them, we better get something in return and also fight to keep it. So, uh, you know, just get to know your community members, join an organization, uh, and, uh, read, read your history. You know, definitely read the histories, your anti-imperialist history, uh, understand why capitalism is so exploitative. Understand your relationship to the system and the broader structure that is settler imperialism, because that is what the United States is buttressed in ultimately. So yeah. Yeah. Just last thought. Seconding some of that is, um, organization, uh, I think I believe it was Kwame Ture said specifically, and I hope I'm not mistaken in this, but organization is the highest form of unity. So organizing is how we achieve power. I mean, that's ultimately what it comes down to. Um, and the masses of people don't have genuine power. Uh, of course, you know, people at the top, they own, they own the ships, the factories and so on and so forth. And there's no reason that and that should be the case. But the people collectively should own these things. You know, no one makes the land, no one makes the water. So why do certain people have, you know, exclusive ownership over this? So I do want to loop back around for one, one last question, because you mentioned encampments, uh, you mentioned SNCC, and both of those are very specific to DC, at least right now. Uh, do you have any thoughts? I guess related to this, what Washingtonians should do could do what you want out of DC. Uh, whether we're talking about the people, the institutions. In terms of like, what can you explain more?

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Where do you think that where do you think that workers liberation, if I'm putting that correctly? Like where do you think that figures when we're talking specifically about Washington? What what are we seeing, say, with encampments at GW or UMD? Things that are very specific to DC versus a more pan—pan workers perspective, idea? Uh. I might differ in terms of the encampments. You know, um, we need to continue to do that. Uh, you know, Palestinians are experiencing a genocide, and some people would say this is not an acceptable form of protest and, you know, violation of private property laws and such. But it's like, you know, these people are dying. And so that shouldn't even be a concern on our mind that shouldn't even, you know, if you if you if you have a conscience, that shouldn't be a concern. You know, it's like we'll prioritize property and violation of it, quote unquote, before the lives of Palestinians, before the lives of, you know, any oppressed group that people of America have, you know, come out and protest of the killing of. So that's what I can say there, I guess, in terms of workers similarly, uh, try to organize, um, because what we have just as the masses of people, uh, is numerical strength. So it's about that organization. It's about that education and understanding that, you know, we have to operate collectively. We have to, uh, I feel like I'm speaking broadly, but we have to have stop having an individualistic mindset. We have to operate collectively for the benefit of all, not just the benefit of few. So. Oh, yeah. And I'll just say the, uh, just to piggyback off that, the only real individual mindset that most of us should have is that the people that are owning are the businesses that we work for the. Institutions that we work for are essentially opposed to anything that we want. Um, to not pay us more. You know what I mean? To. And so we have to just keep in mind, even if you are a manager within like the managerial class, you're still a worker and you're still dependent on this higher person, and he's just using you as a buffer to keep the other workers who don't make as much as you, but who honestly probably do more labor than you to keep them even lower. So yeah, just if you're a manager or something, if you're higher up and you feel like your hands are tied, you know, just organize, talk to people and again, talk about your salaries, at least as far as what workers can do. And um, you know, again, educate yourself on the labor movement and like how that worked, how we got lunch breaks. Because, again, people died for your lunch break. Right. Uh, as far as the encampments, we had some comrades and Black Alliance for peace actually, over there in the encampments and, like, helping with, like, teachings and talking about, like, colonialism, imperialism and how those are interconnected with like, the struggle in Palestine and how the IDF does things in Africa. You know, they have, uh, they are doing this spy network and like, they have things in the Congo, they also are involved in like Sudan. And they they used to be the biggest ally of South Africa, you know what I mean? So it's a lot of it's a lot of interconnections. And just because this is a largely like Arab focused movement, it doesn't mean that it's still not somehow connected to African liberation. And that's why we should be, you know, involved in this. And these encampments are a good thing. And they should, like, kick up again as soon as school lets back in, because they're going to try to subvert day one. Even if they said they would do something else, they're going to try to, you know, they're going to snatch it under your rug and snatch the rug from under you and say, oh, well, actually, we're going to go about this because we have new students. So you have to radicalize the new students coming in, just like automatically as soon as you get back. Um, and yeah, you know, just keep it going. Don't, don't, uh, don't like, lose faith because the system will just gaslight you into thinking that you're crazy. But we see these systems of exploitation. We see that we can't afford rent, and we see that we're not making any more money in our wages or salaries unless we're jumping jobs every 2 to 3 years, or unless we beg for it. And we, like, debase ourselves to get it working. Multiple jobs. Exactly. Yeah. Like I feel like spoke too broadly. I guess one thing I could maybe mention that maybe addresses your question Sunday. I don't know when this will come out, but Sunday, uh, May 19th at Malcolm X Park. Um, the Palestinian Youth Movement and the All-African People's Revolutionary Party Guinea-Conakry there's an event from twelve to six or maybe six thirty celebrating or commemorating or and that speaks about Palestinian, uh, I think it's like Palestinian day or Palestinian liberation and African liberation. So I guess that's one DC specific thing. Come out to Malcolm X Park tomorrow from twelve to six, in support of Palestinians and Africans and the liberation of both populations.

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So all right, anything else? Last thoughts? That's it. Thank you. That's it. Free Palestine. Free Africa. Free Palestine, Free Africa. Free all oppressed peoples.

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Thank you for coming. Yeah. Thanks for coming out. And, uh. Yeah. All right. Thanks, bro.