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FCN Editorial

‘Si Se Puede!’ Yes We Can!

CHICAGO�Nearly 200,000 demonstrators calling for immigration reform march from the city�s Westside through downtown to the lakefront May 1. One of many marches held nationwide in honor of May Day. Photo: Kenneth Muhammad

May Day, May 1, 2007. International Workers Day. This year was the second year when mostly Latino groups staged massive rallies throughout the country on behalf of immigrant workers. Their rallies took place near in time to the 24th Annual Gathering of Nations PowWow and Festival where more than 100,000 Native Americans convened in Albuquerque, N.M.

We should point out that from Coast to Coast and from Border to Border, the Nation of Islam marched in solidarity, and bore faithful witness to the striving by the Brown members and the Red members of our human family.

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“No More Raids and Deportations!” “Moratorium Now!” and “Not One Family Separated!” read the signs in Chicago. “We are workers, not terrorists,” said the signs in Houston. New Yorkers gathered in Union Square, in solidarity.

In Albuquerque, the largest PowWow (celebration) of Indigenous people of the year, and amid the food, the jewelry, the tens of thousands of Native peoples of all Nations, there was a hearty contingent of Fruit of Islam (FOI) in suits and bow ties, accompanying a delegation representing the Nation of Islam (NOI) and the Millions More Movement (MMM).

In Los Angeles, shortly after Min. Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant Minister to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, greeted the mostly Latino audience in Spanish, their shared language, demonstrators were responding: “Si, Se Puede! (Yes We Can!)”

Together, these activities represent another step led by Min. Farrakhan and his helpers, toward the fulfillment of the vision of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad–the establishment of a bond of cooperation between the Black, the Red and the Brown.

“I don’t come to you today as a stranger, but as your Brother,” Min. Ishmael said in Los Angeles. “You must always remember that the forces that attempt to separate and divide us; that are sending parents of children back on the other side of the border–these forces have always been engaged in the break up of family.

“In Los Angeles, there are conflicts that are taking place between the Black and the Brown; the Black and the Red. We must not allow the forces to make us see that we are enemies of one another. We are Brothers and Families!”

Immigrants rights supporters are demanding legislation which will stop the raids and deportations of undocumented persons, and opening a path to legalizing the status of the so-called “illegal” immigrant.

Native people continue to assert their sovereignty, where Blacks and other non-White groups which have been in the numerical “minority” in the U.S. have focused their struggle on seeking “equality” in a system which has never viewed them as equal, and which may never view them as equal.

Uniting the Black, Red and Brown: “Si Se Puede! Yes We Can!”

A strategic alliance and relationship must be developed, because the lands on which we all reside are their lands, the lands of the Native Peoples; the Mexican people. “We are grateful to them because they opened their arms and received many of our forefathers who were fleeing from the evils of slavery, and the blood has mixed with the Red and the Black. We are blood of each others’ blood, flesh of each others’ flesh, bone of each others’ bone and the thing that the enemy has done is to make us all see each other differently,” Min. Ishmael Muhammad said at the Gathering of Nations PowWow. “He has put up a veil and a wall between the Indigenous people. We are divided internally and even divided externally where we don’t even recognize each other as members of one family.”

No one was spared the enemy’s wrath. Blacks in America were destroyed by 400 years of slavery and oppression. The effects of that destruction can be seen everyday on the streets in America where Black people live. “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad saw the unity of Black and Brown and Red and Yellow and even the poor White, one day in this nation.”

“This last century–the 20th Century–was the last century of imperialism, colonialism. It is the last century of racism and injustice, evil and the rule of Satan,” continued the National Assistant Minister. “The new century belongs to God and the righteous from the Black, the Brown and all of the peoples of the earth.”

The Nation of Islam delegations, including Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, Min. Ishmael Muhammad, Nation of Islam Chief-of-Staff Leonard F. Muhammad, Southwestern Regional Minister Robert Muhammad, Western Regional Minister Tony Muhammad, and Sis. Yo’Nas Da LoneWolf McCall-Muhammad, and others helped to extend our frontiers.

Uniting the Black, Red and Brown: “Si Se Puede! Yes We Can!”