In St. Petersburg, Uhuru Movement intervened
But what happened was in St. Petersburg, Florida, there was a revolutionary organization on the ground. We intervened in the process and helped the people to understand what it meant that TyRon Lewis had been killed.
As a consequence, there was a profound struggle that jumped off. This was crucial. First, the African working class, which had been pushed out of political life by the terror of the government with the defeat of the Black Revolution of the '60s, thrust itself with a fury back into political life.
(Left) Bloody St. Petersburg police officer radios for assistance after community upsirising. (Right) One of several police substations destroyed dusing St. Petersburg Rebellion.
Secondly, the rebellion was not aimless. In Los Angeles, there was a rebellion, but there were no aims, no goals. It just exploded. Afterwards different people had opinions, but there was no kind of leadership on the ground, no revolutionary leadership that had a direct connection to the people who made the rebellion. Miami had rebellions in '80, '87 and '89 and nothing has been achieved as a consequence of it. They have Weed and Seed in Miami, don't they?
In St. Petersburg, the masses thrust themselves into history and political life. There was a political center there. The State's Attorney and the media immediately started saying, "Get the Uhuru Movement. They are the ones who started the rebellion. Get them, get them." They slandered TyRon Lewis and they decided they had to move on us.
The people thrust themselves into political life, but also there was political leadership for them on the spot. That was a crucial development not only for St. Petersburg, but also for the movement in this country. That's why they came at us.
First, they set it up with the media to define us in a fashion that would allow them to come and put people in prison. Every time they showed Uhuru being responsible for the rebellion, they showed pictures of Sobukwe standing up on the car making speeches. So Sobukwe was definitely going to jail. He was heading straight into the chain gang. According to them, that's how it was supposed to be.
