Stand up to the white-supremacist capitalism that steals Black life and funds the genocide of the Palestinian people! Gather at La Cienega Park in Beverly Hills for this unprecedented solidarity action organized by Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles, Latino and Muslim Unity, White People for Black Lives, and ally groups. Bring your family, friends, signs, noisemakers, singing voice, marching shoes, and true holiday spirit. All justice-loving people are welcome.
Read MoreLast night #GenocideJoe was confronted by more than 1500 protestors demanding that Biden stop funding the genocide of the Palestinian people with our tax dollars. Saturday, Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles will join Muslim and justice-loving community in Anaheim to #BoycottDisney and demand that corporations that support the Israel Defense Force be held accountable.
And…we are also facing an LAPD that is on track to kill more people than it ever has before, all while receiving an even greater share of the City’s budget.
To change things, WE MUST ORGANIZE! Join the #BlackXmas edition of the BLMLA monthly organizing meeting THIS SUNDAY AT 7PM at the Center for Black Power - 3423 W. 43rd Place. Soul food dinner by M’Dear’s!
Read MoreAs many prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, we are reminded that thousands will be mourning an #EmptySeatAtTheTable…the tremendous loss of loved ones who were stolen by police and white-supremacist violence. As some gather around tables, sharing food, laughter, and loved ones, others are visited by a haunting loss.
Let’s also remember that this is by design in a nation built on the stolen land of Indigenous people, built by the stolen labor of our African Ancestors. Settler colonial forces and white-supremacist capitalism require a violent police state that steals life in order to maintain power.
This holiday season:
Please pray and send your deepest love to those who are suffering.
Join Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles in these streets to #DoTheWork required to topple unjust systems.
#BlackOutBlackFriday and refuse to spend dollars with corporations that fund our oppression.
Plug in with the #BlackXmas campaign to push back against white-supremacist capitalism.
We know that most organizing is invisible work. It’s the visioning, strategizing, planning, thinking through, and developing plans of action. We need you to join the monthly organizing meeting tonight at 7PM at the Center for Black Power - 3423 W. 43rd Place, as we organize for cooperative economics…from Black Xmas to participatory budgeting. At tonight’s meeting:
Help launch the #BlackXmas campaign which runs from November 24, 2023 (Black Friday) through January 1, 2024 (New Year’s Day), where we #BuildBlack, #BuyBlack, and #BankBlack.
Be among the first to take the 2023-2024 People’s Budget Survey with Drs. Tabatha Jones Jolivet and David Turner. Tell the City of Los Angeles what we need and want!
Plug in with all the BLMLA campaigns and efforts.
Join in fellowship with organizers committed to Black liberation...great food and produce bags to take home.
We look forward to organizing together tonight and in these streets all week long!
Read MoreAs we fight for housing justice in Los Angeles, work to #StopCopCity in Atlanta, and #FreePalestine, we must remember that all our fights are connected. The Israel Defense Forces conduct trainings with LAPD and plan to use Atlanta’s Cop City as a training ground. What we are experiencing…the displacement of (mostly Black) poor people, militarized police forces that gobble up entire forests, and genocides around the world is the work settler colonial powers. It is the work of white-supremacist-capitalism. And…as abolitionists…we must fight on all fronts.
Each day may we rise and do work for justice. Do work to #FreeTheLand!
Read MoreAs we continue to chant and work towards #FreePalestine, genocides in the DRC and Sudan are being exposed, killings of Black people by police continue - including a 13 year-old boy in Washington, DC yesterday, and systems continue to erode Black power. We must not close our eyes or seek a comfortable place in oppression. Instead, we must summon the power and guidance of our Creator and the mightiest of Ancestors, and #DoTheWork that freedom requires.
Last week we celebrated the life and Spirit of Comrade Jitu Sadiki - co-founder of Black August. Just weeks before we memorialized Dr. Mutulu Shakur, our visionary Black power leader who initiated the praxis of healing justice. Today, we will lay to rest the body of Ruchell “Cinque” Magee, the longest held political prisoner in the United States. Comrade Ruchell took the name Cinque, after the courageous liberator who commandeered the slave ship, the Amistad, bringing freedom to hundreds. Our “Cinque” asked to be buried with a Black Lives Matter pin because he sees us as a continuation of the generations-long struggle for Black freedom. Let’s earn that honor by living and working for our people with all that we have. Long live our freedom fighters! Long live Ruchell “Cinque” Magee!
Read MoreOn Sunday we honored our beloved comrade, Jitu Sadiki co-founder of Black August; just a few months before we celebrated the life of the visionary behind revolutionary healing justice, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, and last Monday the longest held political prisoner in the U.S., Ruchell “Cinque” Magee transitioned. We have been tremendously blessed to have learned directly from each of these tremendous freedom fighters. Each of them loved Black Lives Matter deeply. Honoring their spirits and their work requires that we struggle unceasingly for Black freedom and liberation. May we recommit ourselves to the cause and collectively say, “Long live Dr. Mutulu, Comrade Jitu, and Ruchell Cinque Magee!”
Read MoreThis last week has been heavy as we again witness unimaginable state violence against the Palestinian people. The settler-colonial State of Israel is making horrifying statements and engaging in all-out genocide. Black people know all too well what state-sponsored violence feels like. Black Lives Matter Grassroots and Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. To be clear, to condemn Israel, is not anti-Semitic, and we condemn anti-Semitism and hatred against the Jewish community. The Israeli State and the Jewish people are not one and the same. Over our ten year history, we have built beautiful and powerful relationships with many justice-loving Jewish comrades, including some of our beloved members who are both Black and Jewish. To struggle for a #FreePalestine and call for an end to U.S. aid to Israel is core to who we are as an abolitionist organization that aligns with and stands on the side of the oppressed.
Read MoreAs we navigate a world of complications, where racists like Kevin de León run for reelection, where the thieves that stole #BlackLivesMatter’s funds, platforms and good name sue the righteous organizers in Black Lives Matter Grassroots for legal fees, and where oppressed people in Palestine are deemed aggressors for daring to invoke self-determination and self-defense, it is clear that we must ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! Join the BLMLA Monthly Organizing Meeting on Sunday, October 8th at 7PM at the Center for Black Power - 3423 W. 43rd Place in AfricaTown (Leimert Park). And double-down on resistance by taking justice actions right now!
Read MoreLooks like #HotLaborSummer is extending into #HotLaborFall. As we congratulate SAG-AFTRA and WGA for winning good contracts for writers and actors, other workers are forming their own picket lines. Hotel and restaurant workers with Unite-HERE are still striking, as is UAW. City workers are still negotiating their contracts and are about to #FixLA. SEIU 2015 is pushing for fair conditions in nursing homes. Kaiser workers just launched the largest strike in the history of healthcare. And, 23,000 professors, counselors, librarians and coaches in the California State University system are #StrikeReady. You know who didn’t have to strike for raises? Cops. You know who’s busting up picket lines? Cops. You know who works for bosses, not other workers? You guessed it…Cops.
This is why we must #EndPoliceAssociations and remove cops from the House of Labor. Join us every Wednesday at 4pm in these streets.
Read MoreIt’s time for LAPD Chief Michel Moore to go! Under his (mis)leadership LAPD officers have shot at least 27 people, and killed 17 people and a dog so far this year. More than half of the victims are Black, many of them struggling with mental health conditions. This is the most people killed by any law enforcement unit in the nation. And the killings are only a part of LAPD’s scandals and corruption, which seem to be exposed daily, even as they continue to gobble up half of the City’s general fund…nearly $4 billion annually. Let’s make it clear to Mayor Karen Bass and the LA Police Commission that the people say #FireChiefMoore!
Read MoreMonday August 21st is #BlackPowerDay…
The revolutionary energy is undeniable. May we summon the mighty spirits of our righteous warrior Ancestors, including:
#ToussaintLouverture - Haitian Revolution commenced August 21, 1791.
#NatTurner - Nat Turner’s Rebellion began August 21, 1831.
#JomoKenyatta - Freed from prison; Kenya’s 1st President, August 21, 1961.
#GeorgeJackson - Uprising at San Quentin prison, August 21, 1971.
Each of these revolutionaries seized the power of this day. Let us also pledge our commitment to our people today and redouble our efforts to get free!
And may that Spirit of resistance carry us through the week as we challenge systems of oppression. We say:
NO to the murders of our people by LAPD - which has reached record numbers (20 shot and 14 killed so far this year)!
NO to double digit raises for police as real workers fight for livable wages.
NO to the massive training ground in Atlanta where police from all over the world will be trained as a militarized force for an all-out war on Black and poor people. #StopCopCity
When we rise up and FIGHT, we win! Meet us in these streets for at least one action this week!
Thank you to all who joined for our #BLMTurns10 People’s Justice Festival. Thousands poured into AfricaTown (Leimert Park) over the course of the day on Saturday, July 15, 2023, as we celebrated. More than 100 “justice families” – loved ones of those killed by police/white supremacy joined – including the mother of #TrayvonMartin, Ms. Sybrina Fulton, and from LA, the families of: #KeithBursey, #MelyCorado, #DijonKizzee, #DavidJosiahLawson, #GrecharioMack, #VanessaMarquez, #KendrickMcDade, #JamesMincey, #KennethRossJr, #RyanTwyman, #AnthonyVargas, and #SkyYoung. BLM chapters from across the country took part. There were seven activation spaces, focusing on healing justice, study & struggle, organizing, “the Black Fantastic” stage, solidarity, youth, and the “Black Brilliance” stage, featuring Dr. Cornel West, Chuck D, former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown, Queen Yonasda, Cat Brooks, Janaya “Future” Khan, our own Dr. Melina Abdullah, the Fernando Pullum Youth Band, and more. Four DJs, including: our own Pastor Cue (who even got on the mic for a minute!), Tynacity, Domina, and Mau. All beautifully hosted by Dominique DiPrima, Van Lathan, Porch’se Miller and Tavis Smiley. A children’s village, with free rides, vendors, art-making and so much more made it a celebration and recommitment worthy of the 10-year legacy of #BlackLivesMatter.
There is so much we could say about the Festival…and the entire weekend, which also celebrated 75 years of our beloved Baba Akili – whose birthday is the same day as Black Lives Matter…Everyone who came, spoke, taught, facilitated, and performed did so for the love of the movement. We held each other in love and in faith…that we will get free. You can watch the livestream of the main stage here.
As we reflect on the beauty and power of the last 10 years, let’s use it as fuel to power us forward in the continued struggle for Black freedom.
Yesterday, LAPD killed a young Black man named Michael (more to come), then concocted some far-fetched story to make him guilty for his own death. We are grateful to our rapid response team who immediately got out to Western and Florence to gather community accounts and offer support to the family.
As many of you are aware, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick issued her ruling on BLM Global Network Foundation’s anti-SLAPP motion, which was not in favor of Black Lives Matter Grassroots. This is a setback, not a loss. As we continue to do the work necessary for Black liberation and prepare to celebrate ten years of Black Lives Matter, we will appeal this decision and implore the consultants who continue to hold on to the movement’s resources to release them. Please see our full statement here.
To be Black and Queer is to constantly balance joy and grief. Many of us are taking to the streets this month to honor the tradition of being visible and celebrating our resilience. And while the spirit moves us to celebrate, to embrace, to gather, and to make noise…
We know that Pride for Black queer and trans folks does not come for free. Since even before its radical inception, we have been subjected to attacks, bombarded by news of our siblings being discriminated against, abandoned, and killed.
This week marks the 7th anniversary of one of the most horrific attacks on Pride ever in history at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL. In the name of our stolen siblings, and all others stolen too soon by entities homophobia and transphobia, of white supremacy, and of police violence:
It is our duty to gather the courage to speak out and fight back.
Read MoreAs we spend the day celebrating the genius of Prince - one of the greatest artists to ever grace the planet, we must also remember that creativity and freedom are bound up one with the other. Prince loved Black Lives Matter and committed his work and his platform to calls for liberation and justice…”Uptown,” “Controversy,” “Act of God,” “The Avalanche,” and “Baltimore,” are but a few of countless examples.
Prince believed in building an Erotic City, not a Cop City!
Yesterday, Atlanta City Council approved $67 million dollars to fund Cop City, over the voices of more than 1000 people who delivered 15 hours of public comment. The vote was 11-4, with 5 of the votes approving the measure coming from Black council members who have sold out for their own gain.
We know that the more money given to policing, the greater the target on the backs of Black people. As we strive to uphold the value of life and continue the fight to #StopCopCity from breaking ground in the ATL and beyond, we ask that you recommit to doing the work toward abolishing the police state in our city and in this country.
Read MoreWhen #JordanNeely was choked to death last week on a New York City subway, it had everything to do with the budget and policy choices that cities make. No one should have to suffer from and yell about not having enough food or drink; no one should have to bear the weight of the traumatic death of their mother without support; no one should be forced to live unhoused; and no one’s life should be stolen as bystanders look on - and even aid - the murderer. The killing of Jordan Neely hit us as hard as it did, in part, because we see parallels in the deaths of Brother Africa, Brendon Glenn, and so many others. We understand that only grace saves any Black person from the same fate. As we weep and rage for Jordan, we must also organize. We must demand a City and County budget that centers life affirming care, not harm and death. In the name of Jordan Neely and all of our people, we must all advocate harder than ever:
No additional funding for LAPD (Mayor’s proposal is for an $87 million increase).
Schedule a #PeoplesBudgetLA presentation before full City Council.
Adopt the #PeoplesBudget priorities.
