The Peace and Freedom Party of California State Central Committee condemns the recent federal indictments of four leaders of the African Peoples Socialist Party and the African Peoples Solidarity Committee, Omali Yeshila, Augustus Roman, Penny Hess, and Jesse Revel, for the alleged crime of “acting as participants in an influence campaign and acting as agents of Russia.” We feel that their actual “crime” was opposing the escalating role of the US and NATO in the war in Ukraine.

These indictments are part of a long dishonorable tradition of smearing opponents of U.S. military interventions as “agents of a foreign power.” Among those slandered over the decades include Paul Robeson and Dr. Martin Luther King. We therefore call for the immediate dropping of charges against the four indictees and demand that the US government stop its attacks on free speech.

–Debra Reiger
California state chair, Peace & Freedom Party