Civil Rights leader Rev Edward Pinkney has been sentenced to 30 – 120 months in prison for forging a successful recall petition against Mayor James Hightower. He maintains his innocence in the face of a conviction based on flimsy evidence. The conviction – delivered within a context of heightened anti-racist and anti-capitalist struggle in the US – is seen by many as politically motivated.

Washington has engineered attacks on other nations around the world accusing them of human rights violations. Yet the administration has initiated no concrete programs to improve the plight of African Americans, particularly young black men. Every 28 hours, an unarmed black citizen is killed.

Despite the existence of 54 independent states in Africa, today the principal struggle is against a new and more insidious form of exploitation and oppression, neo-colonialism. Africa must move towards socialist development in order to ensure its future.

Although the events in Burkina Faso have sparked hope among African workers, farmers and youth throughout the region and beyond, it remains to be seen whether the new leader, with his American links, will deliver a political program of anti-capitalist development for the gains of the popular struggle to win concrete results

The popular uprising that toppled the Compaore regime last week echoed the revolution by Sankara on August 4, 1983. In the 27 years since Sankara’s assassination, the country’s mineral wealth and other resources have benefited only a small elite and transnational corporations based in the imperialist states of the West.

Libya is still in turmoil. The present situation is the direct result of the war of regime-change led by the CIA, the Pentagon and NATO during 2011. U.S. policy is designed to overthrow all of the sovereign and anti-imperialist governments throughout Africa and the Middle East.

Much more needs to be done to prevent the spread of the virus and to effectively treat the thousands who have already been infected. Support services will also be needed for the affected families where many children will be left as orphans.

Whereas America has sent soldiers to fight Ebola, Cuba has pledged medical personnel. This gesture of revolutionary foreign policy provides an example of how underdeveloped states which have a legacy of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism, can transform through a process of class struggle and self-reliance.

Some 2.9 people are threatened with starvation, but this alarming situation has not received any significant attention. Global focus is on the US-led war against al Shabaab militants and the quiet oil exploration by Western firms

With Africa firmly integrated into the international financial order, there is almost no potential within the existing political arrangements for substantial advancements in the socio-economic status of workers, farmers and youth.

This year’s African Union summit was marked by calls for economic and political independence from the West. Mutually beneficial relations between the AU and China as well as internal security are critical to the discussion around Africa’s sovereignty and the ways in which the continent may seize its rightful place in international affairs.

The lessons of the struggles waged by General Baker and his comrades must be taken into consideration in the present battle in the US over jobs, income, pensions and public assets

Angelou’s contributions to literature and social movements will remain as an inspiration to today’s youth as well as future generations.

51 years after the founding of the OAU, now AU, Africa has largely failed to build effective unity, with countries ravaged by internal conflict and the AU failing to have any impact in global power. Internal failures are exploited by imperialist powers to continue their meddling in African affairs. A political alternative based upon revolutionary Pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism and socialism provides the only hope for Africa

The growing threat of Boko Haram has regional implications and led to a conference in Paris with the leaders of Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad participating. The conference is representative of the burgeoning militarization of the continent led by the Pentagon and NATO forces and does not augur well for the long-term security of Africa’s people

Despite claims that Africa is experiencing one of the highest growth rates in the world, growing class divisions and higher consumer prices are having disproportionate impacts on working people and the poor. Under socialism, the wealth generated by African resources and trade would be primarily re-invested in the society

Along with husband Robert F. Williams they led a campaign for self-defense that shaped the 1960s

Thirty six African heads of state recently attended an EU-Africa summit on the theme “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace.” Yet, behind the scenes the EU plans to deploy a thousand troops to join UN troops in the Central African Republic

The release of this former Panther organizer illustrates the injustice of the U.S. political and legal system but also draws attention to the fact that there are many other political prisoners detained inside a country which claims to be the citadel of democracy

Malcolm X was convinced that racism against Black people was a global problem. He campaigned in Europe, Middle East and Africa against the scourge. At the Second Annual Summit of the OAU in Cairo 50 years ago, he made a direct appeal to African leaders for solidarity in ending the plight of African Americans under US national oppression