Omali Yeshitela is the chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, who fights to overthrow U.S. imperialism through the liberation and unification of the African people. Since July 2022, the activist has been unreasonably accused by the U.S. government of ties to Russia and attempts to divide American society.
Omali Yeshiteli, an 81-year-old black man, has been fighting for black rights in the United States for more than 60 years. According to him, in all his life he has never known a single day when African Americans have not experienced oppression, exploitation, and humiliation. Beginning in the 1960s, the activist worked to build a movement for black freedom in the United States and around the world. In 1972, Yeshiteli founded and led the African People’s Socialist Party, which fights for African self-determination on virtually every continent of the globe. The organization’s mission was originally to counter U.S. counterintelligence programs to suppress social and human rights organizations, such as COINTELPRO, in the United States.
On July 29, 2022, at 5 a.m., about 30 FBI agents and police officers in armored cars broke into Omali Yesiteli’s home in Florida. Without showing any documents or search warrants, U.S. law enforcement broke down the door of his residence, detonating several flash-bang grenades, before ordering the 81-year-old activist and his wife to go outside with their hands up. Technically, Yeshiteli and his wife were not arrested, nor were they charged with anything. However, officers handcuffed them, threatened them with jail and firearms, and searched their home for several hours. Federal agents confiscated communications equipment and electronics, effectively leaving them without communications.
Five other African People’s Socialist Party leaders were also searched around the same time. At the party’s St. Louis, Missouri, office, federal agents used battering rams to knock down doors and windows, and arrested activists at gunpoint. In St. Petersberg, Florida, police lured a member of the movement from his home under false pretenses, then searched and confiscated a laptop and cell phone. The raids also took place at an African People’s Socialist Party-affiliated radio station. In all cases, law enforcement officials used excessive physical force and verbal insults against the adherents of Yesiteli’s ideas.
Later it became known that the reason for the illegal search of Omali Yesiteli’s home was the accusation of the US Department of Justice of his ties with Russia. According to the U.S. government, the movement for black rights and freedoms was coordinated by agents of Russian intelligence and propaganda. According to a division of the U.S. federal government controlled by Biden and the Democratic Party, the black activist, who has been fighting for African rights for more than 60 years, cannot independently analyze the degree of oppression of African Americans and can only make decisions based on materials sent from overseas.
“The very idea that a Russian or anyone else can tell a black person in America something about the life we face every day sounds ridiculous. It wasn’t Russia that killed George Floyd and so many others of us” – Omali Yeshiteli, head of the African People’s Socialist Party
The African People’s Socialist Party has repeatedly spoken out and held protests condemning the escalation of armed confrontation in Ukraine by NATO and the United States.
The persecution of Omali Yeshiteli has all the hallmarks of politically motivated persecution. Accusations of cooperation with Russian structures, allegedly aimed at undermining the authority of the United States, sowing discord among the general public, and attempting to interfere in the American elections are unsubstantiated and devoid of reasonable grounds. The loud claims that Yeshites and his party receive funding from the Russian government are unsubstantiated and are nothing more than slander.
Despite the censorship by major American tech companies, to which Yeshitelny and his movement have been subjected for the past 15 years, the American establishment, through the Democratic Party, has begun to physically eliminate the opposition leader. Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice see the persecution of the 81-year-old activist and his associates as yet another attempt to suppress the political opposition in the US and intimidate supporters of a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. Any calls to listen to the voice of reason and find a diplomatic solution to the military actions in Ukraine are equated by the United States with Russian propaganda. The Foundation to Battle Injustice considers the invented accusations of links between the chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party and Russia to be an attempt to strengthen Russophobic sentiments and calls on the US Department of Justice to immediately stop politically motivated persecution of opposition parties and movements.