In October 2008, the Resist AFRICOM campaign (www.resistafricom.org) is gearing up for days of action to address the official launching of the new U.S. military initiative called Africa Command, or AFRICOM. Currently, under the leadership of an African American, General William "Kip" Ward, AFRICOM is already a functioning military body and is staged in Stuttgart, Germany. The October 2008 date initiates its presence on the continent and begins a new chapter in Africa-US relations with the same ole feeling of imperialism and colonialism that Africans know too well.

As a collective of concerned organizations and individuals, the Resist AFRICOM campaign is comprised of organizations and individuals that are dedicated to speaking out against this extension of the military industrial complex. It is imperative that those of us that care about various wars in Africa show our support of this campaign. Whether it be the pending war in the Niger Delta or the continuous tragedies in the Congo, Sudan or Somalia, it is time we come together to say: enough is enough! AFRICOM is currently staged in Stuttgart, Germany and as of October 2007, it is scheduled to be a fully functional military command in October 2008. As a result, we have days of actions planned for every Friday in October:

October 3 - Panel Discussion at Howard University Symposium
October 10 - Press Conference
October 17 - Town Hall Meeting at Sankofa Bookstore
October 24 - Global Student Teach-In
October 31 - Day of Protest

Throughout the summer of 2008, Resist AFRICOM has engaged in a series of outreach endeavors to educate the various legs o the Black community, in particular, and concerned citizens, in general, about the details of this program and its historic implication. A key strategy in public education has been in connecting the dots of global militarism to domestic police brutality to gentrification to immigrant scare tactics. From attending conferences and townhall meetings to conducting political education sessions and teach-ins, it has been a summer of coalition building and organizing!

Our immediate next steps are to host a fundraiser for a potential mini-documentary to assist in educative efforts in October. This event entitled Drop the M.I.C. (military industrial complex) is tentatively scheduled for August 22, 2008 at Busboys and Poets. We have invited Hasan Salaam, a conscious hip hop artist from New Jersey, and Rebel Diaz, conscious hip hop group and recent survivors of NYPD police brutality) as well as activists and scholars to assist in this on-going public awareness campaign that not only resists AFRICOM, but is calling an end to many manifestations of global militarism.

We need your help to make this happen! We are asking that you make a donation to the Resist AFRICOM campaign via Igbo Kwenu! (http://www.igbokwe.org/donation.html) - a Pan Afrikan media group aimed at promoting indigenous Igbo culture and Afrikan justice issues.