Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews - 5/11/23 Mutaqee Akbar on the Uhuru Movement, Who They Are and What They’re Charged With

Episode Date: May 14, 2023

Scott is joined by Mutaqee Akbar, one of the lawyers representing members of the Uhuru Movement. The Uhuru Movement is a group of Black Socialists who were recently arrested in a SWAT raid and charged with operating as agents of the Russian government. Akbar explains what the Uhuru Movement is and gives some details on what the U.S. government is attempting to use as evidence in its effort to send these political activists to prison. Discussed on the show: “Video shows FBI ‘attack’ on Uhuru Movement chapter” (WFLA News Channel 8) Mutaqee Akbar is a lawyer from Florida. He is currently representing members of the Uhuru Movement chapter of St. Petersburg Florida who are charged with working as Russian agents.  This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott’s interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Pacifica Radio, May 11th, 20203, I'm Scott Horton. This is Anti-War Radio. All right, y'all welcome the show. It is Anti-War Radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm editorial director of anti-war.com, an editor of the book, hotter than the sun. Time to abolish nuclear weapons. You can find my full interview archive, about 6,000 of them now,

going back 20 years, at scothorton.org, and at YouTube.com slash Scott Horton Show. And you can follow me on Twitter, if you dare, at Scott Horton Show. All right, you guys, introducing our next guest.

It's Mutaki Akbar, and he is a lawyer for the Uhuru movement. Welcome to the show. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great. How about yourself? Thanks for having me on. I'm doing great, and I really appreciate you joining us today. We have a really important story here about the UHURA movement out of St. Petersburg, Florida,

indicted by the Department of Justice on, I guess, foreign agent registration act charges and others. Under the accusation, they're acting as agents of Russia interfering in American elections. They weaponized the First Amendment, the U.S. Attorney said. So this is a huge story, really no matter who the subject of it is, if it's the First Amendment in question here on these federal charges. So, first of all, could you please tell us, for those unfamiliar, what is the Uhooro movement, and what is it exactly that the government is accusing them of here? All right, so the UHuru movement, they go also.

We also go by the name of the African People Socialist Party. Their chairman is Chairman O'Malley Yeshitelli. And they've been around probably since the, you know, 70s. It's an organization, socialist, it's considered a socialist organization. But the main effort is the freedom of African people. And in reaching that effort, they've done things as far as opening bakeries. They've opened, you know, like daycare centers. They have a community in St. Louis where there's a basketball court, where there's housing

for people that are just getting out of incarceration. There's a garden in a community that was left impoverished. They built all that in St. Louis. They've done the same thing in St. Petersburg. So that's the actual work that they've been doing. Part of their mission has also been for fighting for reparations for African people, bringing awareness about the things that goes on against African people in the United States, whether it's police brutality, whether it's over-policing the communities, neglect in the communities,

health care, education, all those issues that are important to the black community. You know, Chairman Omali Yeshitella, along with the African People Socialist Party, have been bringing awareness to all of those issues and not just verbally, but also doing the work by invested in the community and putting money and efforts into the communities to improve it. And that's been going on since the 70s. In this effort, the African People Socialist Party has collaborated with people throughout the world, not just in Florida, not just in St. Louis, but people throughout the world to bring awareness to the work that they're doing in the community, but also bringing awareness to the struggles that black people have in America. And that has attracted people from, again, throughout the world to hear the chairman speak on it and also to find ways to assist in those efforts. So that's a summary

of, you know, what I know of the party, you know, both from my representation just recently and also just being familiar with the party prior to my representation. As far as what they're facing right now, the nutshell of it is there's a Russian name Ayanov who started communicating with the party. And in that communication, they were or became aware or assumed that Aynov was, aligned with the efforts that the African People Socialist Party has been doing, like I said, like since its existence, align with it in the sense of bringing awareness to it, bringing some of these issues to the United Nations, also, you know, kind of like spreading knowledge about

reparations and how reparations can work. So with that alignment, the government has taking that relationship and kind of ignore the 30 years, well, 50 years of work that the party has been doing, and turn that into this Russian ionoff has been instructing the party as to what to do, what to say, how to say it, what to publish, how to publish it. So the language and indictment goes from, like, hey, they discussed this, and this is what came out. out to kind of making it seem as if Ayanoff was directing the party to do certain things and say certain things. So normally, you know, if you're engaging with a foreign government and that foreign government

makes you do things or instructs you to do things on behalf of that government, then you can be indicted for that up under this, the statute that they charge. I think the problem that the government is going to have with this is, again, ignoring 50 years of work that the party's been doing and ignoring the fact that the party was, you know, did not need any instruction and did not get any instruction. It was not made to do anything. This is the work that they've been doing. And if somebody comes along, whether they're truthful or died or whether they're being manipulative

or not, and align themselves with that work, that's not, you know, corroborated with a foreign agent. All right. It's anti-war radio. I'm talking with Mutaki Akbar. He is a lawyer representing the Uhooro movement in St. Petersburg, Florida. And they are, as he's been describing, a black leftist, internationalist group with a 50-year track record of working with foreign groups all around the planet. this whole time. And now they have some relationship with this Russian and accused of acting as foreign agents. So let me ask you this. Is it really the case then that the government's case hinges on their theory that the Uhuru movement changed what they were saying and what they were doing because of this Russian involvement? Otherwise, it's perfectly legal and acceptable for American groups to accept foreign money.

We see every think tank in Washington, D.C. is backed by the UAE or Qatar or Saudi Arabia or Israel. Right. Yeah, so I think a few things led us here. One is Russia. Two, the message that the party or the mission of the party is, you know, for the uplifting of the black community. and three is calling out our government for neglecting the black community.

So when you have those three together, I think that's going to create eyes on you and ways to bring down, you know, that effort. But yes, it has to be the work that they did or the work that they started doing was because of the Russian government. Otherwise, like, you know, I think what was said in the press conference yesterday And what's been discussed is that any group in America can say and do what they want to do as long as it doesn't cross the line of violating the First Amendment. And from what we can tell, none of what was done or has been done violates the First Amendment. So the only way they can attack it is to try to say that they're being influenced by a foreign government.

Which makes sense. Sorry, hang on just one second. Hey, y'all, Scott Horton here for Tennessee Hot Sauce Company. Man, this stuff is so good. They get all different flavors. Garlic habanero, honey habanero, pineapple habanero, Poblano Halapeno, and the Blood Orange Ghost. They're all so good, I swear.

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Use promo code Horton, and you'll save 25 bucks, and this show will get a little kickback too. That's Rick Casale.com slash Ron Paul. Casali is C-A-S-A-L-I. Rick Casali.com slash Ron Paul. And there's free shipping, too. And of course, the Foreign Agents Registration Act is notoriously extremely selectively enforced

depending on when they want to use it. For example, they made a huge case out of that Russian gun rights activist Maria Boutina when she was just trying to legalize guns in Russia. She wasn't trying to affect American politics at all, but they just nailed her anyway and held her in solitary confinement for months and all these things when probably 90% of Washington, D.C., is on the take of one foreign potentate or another, you know, whether they declare themselves so under FARA or not.

But so let me ask you this real quick, because this seemed important to me. I just saw one small picture in one of the news stories here of a bunch of cops dressed up like soldiers on a night raid in Afghanistan. Was this a militarized type SWAT raid on the Hulu movement? It was. What happened was they, they served.

search warrants on both of the, of the Aquaba Hall, I believe is what it's called in St. Louis and in St. Petersburg all at the same time. But yes, they arrived in militarized vehicles, drones, guns pointed at them. Drones, huh? Pipe bombs thrown in the house. And you can, in order videos, I've seen the video that was taken from the home. I'm sorry. Did he say pipe bombs throwing the house?

You mean like flashbang grenades? Yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, flashback grenade thrown in, I guess, in order to get their attention. But yeah, it was full force on Chairman O'Malley, who I can remind you as an 81-year-old, you know, man and his wife, you know, at their house along with the, you know, the different centers that, you know, and I mean, in African People Socialist Party has never been accused of, arrested for, no video of. any violence, threatening any violence, being a quote-unquote extremist group at all, you know, they might have gotten fussed at if they would have just knocked on the door. But I think they should have started with just knocking on the door and saying, hey, we got a war. Well, as you said, this group has been around for 50 years. The FBI knows everything about them, including how not militant they are. I mean, militant in a very literal sense there.

They didn't think they were going to be met with guns. Right. But that's part of the show, right? Right. Well, and also, it's not just part of the show, because on the receiving end of that, it could be extremely scared, especially for someone in their 80s, be raided by guys, you know, like it's the Waco raid, full paramilitary SWAT-type raid, it's an unnecessary thing they do to people all the time. Right. I mean, and it's interesting because, you know, they showed up in the exact same way or appearance that. that this group has spoken out against, you know, for years. You know, they speak out against the, you know, militarizing our police force. And that's exactly how they showed up.

So they can't deny that, you know, some of, at least a part of the issues that they fight against is not real when they, when they experienced it themselves and it was unnecessary. You know, we can't ignore the fact that, you know, like the militarization of law enforcement is not necessarily to, you know, play military, but it's psychological warfare on the community by showing up that way. And so it's the same psychological warfare against these people by showing up that way,

by not just knocking on the door, but showing up and forced that way. Right. Yeah, absolutely. It's anti-war radio. I'm Scott Horton talking with Mutaki Akbar. He is a lawyer representing the Oahu-Roo movement here. being charged with acting as agents for the Russian Federation, believe it or not. And I don't know if you could talk about this part of the case, but I believe in one of these

stories I read, part of the story was that the member of the group that was talking to this Russian, didn't even a member of the group anymore anyway, and they had kicked him out and this kind of thing. Can you elaborate about that, please? Yeah, I mean, that's the only thing that we know, that one of the indicted guy named Romain, last thing, Romaine, he was continuing. We don't know what his involvement was, what he was doing. But that's correct. He has not been a part of the African People Socialist Party for several years.

For several years. And there being, and does it look to you, like, whatever it is, you know, whatever deal of however one would describe it with the Russians, was made by this guy and not the other guys? Or they all kind of were talking with the same guy? Well, I mean, what I can say is that the relationship that the African People Socialist Party had with Ayanov was not one of a queer pro quo. It was not one of a, you need to do this for us. I don't know what Romaine's relationship was with Ayanov or anybody from Russia. I see.

And look, I mean, I think if anyone wants to just go and put Ohoo Roos in your local search engine, and look at the recent news and see who these people are and what they're talking about, it doesn't make any sense in the world that they would change their point of view because of influence of foreign money. These are clearly leftist anti-imperialists, committed anti-imperialists, as you said, with a focus on Africa and on African-Americans. But they've, for example, denounced American participation in the war in Ukraine, as have many anti-war groups from all over the political spectrum.

That doesn't make them foreign agents at all. But can you tell us, what are the accusations here about some intervention in a local election there in St. Petersburg? That's supposed to be a big deal here, I guess. Yeah, so two, well, one of the indicted Jesse Neville, who's actually my specific client, ran for mayor in St. Petersburg. And his, I mean, he didn't run thinking that he was going to win, of course, you know, somebody who, for the Advocate People Socialist Party running in St. Petersburg, if you're familiar with St. Petersburg, Florida, he wouldn't get close to the votes that he needed. But the purpose was to spread this idea of reparations and have a platform on reparations in order, you know, and just in the spread it. And there, the allegations are that, he ran because Russia told him to run and that Russia funded his entire campaign, which, by the way, he raised maybe 5% or less of what the other candidates raised. And none of that money came from Russia or any kind of Russian government agency as far as money that he can identify.

And again, his platform was the same platform that the African people Socialist Party had for the last 50 years, they just chose to use, to have Jesse Neville run and to be able to use that platform in order to speak out against it. And for those who are not aware, Jesse Neville and Penny Hess are a part of kind of like an affiliate group is like the Solidarity Group. And the Solidarity Group is white people actually who are in solidarity with the African People Socialist Party and help raise money, help fight for reparations on behalf of the African People Socialist Party. So Jesse Neville was picked to run as mayor in that position. Yeah. All right. Listen, I'm sorry we're out of time, but this is such an important story.

And I really wish people look at it. And I appreciate your time on the show. This is all of our First Amendment and all of our right to participate in American politics at stake here on the Chopin' Block. So really appreciate your effort on behalf of the First Amendment here and on behalf of these clients. All right. Thank you. Thank you for having us. And thank you for helping us get their story out there. Absolutely. All right, you guys. That is Mutaki Akbar.

He is a lawyer representing the O'Hourou movement in St. Louis and St. Petersburg. And that is it for Anti-War Radio for today. I'm your host, Scott Horton, from Anti-War.com. Find my full interview archive, almost 6,000 of them now going back 20 years. at Scotthorton.org and at YouTube.com slash Scott Horton's show. And follow me on Twitter at Scott Horton's show. I'm here every Thursday from 2.30 to 3 on KPFK, 90.7 FM in L.A. See you next week.