ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's been just shy of a week since the FBI conducted an hours-long court-authorized warrant at the Uhuru House, the Florida-based headquarters of a Black international socialist group. Now, leaders of the organization are speaking out about the allegations against their group.
An indictment from the Department of Justice alleges that a Russian national carried out a multi-year influence campaign, using U.S. political groups to spread pro-Russian propaganda and interfere in elections.
The Uhuru movement wasn't mentioned in the indictment by name, but the FBI confirmed that its raid of the Uhuru House was connected to the alleged conspiracy.
On Thursday morning, local leaders from the group held a news conference to assert that the raid was an "attack against our movement."
Akile Anai, the director of the Department of Agitation and Propaganda for the party, said she wouldn't speak about the content of the indictment due to its "absurdity." She did, however, call the FBI raid part of an attack on the African community by the U.S. government.
Anai referenced what she called the country's history of knocking down Black people and Black political movements.
"The U.S. government...was not founded in the interests of Black people," she said.
Anai said the government "has attacked this party historically” and has always come up with some sort of justification for it — which, in this case, is the alleged ties to a Russian national.
"They say it's about this thing with Russia, but it's not about this thing with Russia," she argued. "They can create, fabricate, produce anything that helps them…to make convictions."
On July 29, the day of the FBI raid at the Uhuru House, 10 Tampa Bay asked Anai if the Uhuru Movement has relationships with any government, any party in Russia.
"We are able to have relationships with any forces who can unite with the anti-colonial struggle, so any force out there in the world that unites with the anti-colonial struggle, we pursue a relationship with unapologetically," she said at the time.
The Uhuru House is home to the Uhuru Movement, which is part of the African People's Socialist Party, according to The Associated Press. The party's website says it aims to unite "African people as one people for liberation, social justice, self-reliance and economic development."