During the month of May, Black people around the world celebrate African Liberation Day (ALD). In Chicago, the local National Black United Front (NBUF) chapter will sponsor an African Liberation Day Symposium on Friday, May 14, at the Center for Inner City Studies, Northeastern Illinois University, 700 East Oakwood Blvd. beginning at 7 p.m.

The ALD Symposium will feature Viola Plummer, a longtime movement activist, organizer, and leader who sprang out of the 1960s. Sister Plummer is a leader of the December 12th Movement based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

It is important that we keep the African Liberation Day tradition alive.

When African Liberation Day emerged in 1963, the continent of Africa was experiencing the fight for independence from colonial rule, white supremacy, and imperialism. Here in the United States we celebrated the first ALD celebration in May, 1972.

The conditions in Africa have changed dramatically, as we observe the efforts of the former slave trading nations—Britain, France, Portugal, and the United States of America—moving to attempt to re-colonize Africa. Therefore, our symposium will focus on the continued genocide, racism, and white supremacy against African people throughout the world. Sis. Plummer just returned from Geneva, Switzerland, where the December 12th Movement has been engaged in very important work at the United Nations on behalf of Black people for several years. She will report on this work.

In preparation for ALD it is important that we remind ourselves of our Pan African duty and responsibility to support the struggles of Black people everywhere. Of course, the key struggle that we have supported is the struggle of the African majority population to win their land and country back in South Africa. Although it is historic that Nelson Mandela has become the President of South Africa, we must continue to call for the total liberation of South Africa.

There is no question that the Pan African spirit is alive and well throughout the world. When we use the term Pan Africanism, as Dr. Anderson Thompson instructs us, we are talking about the "Belief that people of African decent throughout the world have the same racial and cultural characteristics—and the same social and economic conditions as a result of our African origin."

Therefore, in the tradition of this worldwide Pan African spirit, given to us by our African ancestors, we have a historical obligation to intensify our support for our brothers and sisters in South Africa who now face the awesome challenge of national reconstruction.

It makes no sense for other people to lead a struggle that belongs to African people. We must accept their support and work with them, but the struggle in South Africa should inspire us to greater levels of support for Black people throughout the world.

In developing our on-going support for our brothers and sisters in South Africa, we must understand the nature of the domestic and foreign policies of the United States. The domestic policies of the United States have always been racist, even though from time to time, historically, there have been reforms.

The United States foreign policies have always been racist from the standpoint of protecting United States interests and white supremacy. The call for a "New World Order" is a vivid example.

South Africa and its historically blatant racism depended on the support of the United States and its western powers backing the shared power arrangement in South Africa to protect the white supremacy interests in that region of the world. We must not be duped by this scheme.

The historical South African racism, propped up by United States racism, has represented the foundation of white supremacy in the development of their foreign and domestic policies that aid in the continued oppression of African people.

Since the Berlin Conference of 1844, when the former slave trading nations came together to divide Africa up for themselves, the Pan African spirit of the African Liberation Movement worldwide has been tuned into the plight for our brothers and sisters in Africa, our ancestral homeland.

Since the first Pan African Conference meeting in London in 1900, the worldwide African Liberation Movement has gone on record in opposition to white rule and apartheid in South Africa. Our movement should take great pride in the contributions we have made to the South African struggle and other liberation movements on the continent of Africa.

Through the Marcus Garvey movement, the subsequent Pan African conferences, and the Black Power movement of the 1960s, the Black Liberation Movement, through the spirit of Pan Africanism, has played a leading role in exposing and clarifying to the world the nature of the colonial presence in all of Africa and we must continue this role.