Shafeah M'Balia

Shafeah M'Balia

Shafeah M'Balia is a North Carolina activist.

"When Movements Rise"

Project South July 6, 2023.

• Mariam Barghouti Mondoweiss
• Shafeah M'Balia Expose COINTELPRO and Beyond Coalition.
• Jasmine Burnett Community Movement Builders
• Akile Anai African People's Socialist Party
• Jubilee Shivalkar Project South
• Kumasi Amin Project South

Black Radical Congress

In March 1998 “Endorsers of the Call” to found a Black Radical Congress included Shafeah M'Balia, Black Workers for Justice; Health Care Activist.

Rally against rape

A march and rally took place Durham, North Carolina April 28 2007 against sexual violence and assault. The protest was called Creating a World Without Sexual Violence—National Day of Truthtelling (DOT).

The organizing DOT coalition was made up of Black Workers for Justice, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Independent Voices, Men Against Rape Culture, North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Raleigh Fight Imperialism—Stand Together, Spirit House, Southerners On New Ground (SONG) and UBUNTU.

Alexis Gumbs, a Black graduate student at Duke, read a moving open letter to the crowd in front of the Buchanan house.

The main rally was held on the steps of the Durham County Courthouse. Speakers there included Serena Sebring, UBUNTU; Monika Johnson Hostler, NCCASA; Paulina Hernandez, SONG; Tyneisha Bowens and Laura Bickford, Raleigh FIST; Shafeah M'Balia, Women’s Commission of BWFJ, and Phoenix Brangman, Dasan Ahanu and Bryan Proffitt of Men Against Rape Culture. A number of the speakers linked the issue of sexual violence to the struggle for immigrant rights and against racism, homophobia, capitalism, militarism and imperialism.

Carolinas Human Rights Organizers Networking

Theresa El-Amin September 15 2019·

Carolinas Human Rights Organizers Networking Conference was amazing. My first CHRONIC. Closing photo. Thanks to Shafeah M'Balia Molefi Askari, JD Dunlap, Shani Robinson-Tejuoso, Lawrence Hamm.

“Forging a Black Liberation Agenda for the 21st Century”

10th Anniversary Meeting of the Black Radical Congress, “Forging a Black Liberation Agenda for the 21st Century” Black Radical Congress, June 20-22, 2008, St. Louis, Missouri.

Endorsers for the Congress included Shafeah M'Balia Black Workers for Justice.

Committees of Correspondence conference

M'Balia attended the 6th National Convention of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) at San Francisco's Whitcomb Hotel July 23-26 2009.

Zach Robinson and Shafeah M'Balia reported on work in the South, and the special role played by democratic forces opposed to the right wing. They highlighted a multi-racial, grass roots people's charter movement initiated by the NAACP in North Carolina that parallels the "Democracy Charter" and mobilized thousands to march on the capital in Raleigh earlier this year.

Black Workers for Justice

As at Jan. 14, 2009, M'Balia was a member of Black Workers for Justice.

Workers World Party

On Saturday, November 14, 2009, Shafeah M'Balia spoke alongside Sharon Black, Ellen Catalinotto, Phebe Eckfeldt, Martha Grevatt, Sandra Hines and John Parker on the second panel at the 2009 National Conference of Workers World Party. Gloria Verdieu chaired the panel.

Meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

On September 21, 2010, Shafeah M'Balia attended a meeting at a midtown hotel with President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and approximately 130 members of the U.S. "peace and social justice movements", as well as "major figures in the Black activist community." M'Balia was also among those who made opening remarks at the meeting.

More than 100 activists and journalists from a variety of organizations, religious groups and media outlets attended a gathering with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Warwick Hotel here Sept. 21. The leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran was in the city to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly.

These prominent leaders of grassroots social justice and human rights movements within the U.S. consciously rejected a well-funded campaign to demonize Iran and whip up a pro-war climate. Ahmadinejad’s visit had been preceded by incendiary billboards, ads in buses and newspapers, hostile media coverage and demonstrations against Iran, much of it funded by the CIA-connected U.S. Agency for International Development and private corporations.

After an Iranian-style dinner, the gathering moved to a conference room where representatives from various organizations spoke on the plight of people inside the United States. The displacement of African Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the burgeoning prison-industrial complex, conditions facing political prisoners, the crisis in U.S.-Iranian relations and the overall economic crisis dominated the discussion.

Among the individuals and organizations in attendance were Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. House of Representatives member from Georgia and the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2008; poet and activist Amiri Baraka; MOVE Minister of Information Ramona Africa; International Action Center co-director Sara Flounders; Ardeshir Ommani and Eleanor Ommani, co-founders of the American-Iranian Friendship Committee; former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Million Worker March Movement organizer Brenda Stokely; Shafeah M'Balia of Black Workers for Justice; Phil Wilayto of Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality; Larry Holmes of Bail Out the People Movement; Don DeBar of WBAIx.org; Ryme Katkhouda of the People’s Media Center; Michael McPhearson of United for Peace and Justice; and Rev. Graylan Hagler.

After listening for an hour and a half to 22 different speakers, President Ahmadinejad addressed the guests for approximately 45 minutes. He touched on the international struggle for peace and justice, saying that “trying to build peace is the most important and comprehensive struggle that mankind can have.”

He added, “Those who are opposed to justice are a few, a minority.”

Black Liberation Theoreticians

Circa 2012, a Black Left Unity Directory;

Ashaki Binta/NC, William Darity /NC, Ajamu Dillahunt /NC, Joyce Johnson /NC, Nelson Johnson /NC, Joseph Jordan, Julianne Malveaux / NC, Shafeah M'Balia, Naeema Muhammad /NC, Saladin Muhammad /NC, Mark Anthony Neal /NC, Ed Whitfield /NC, Leah Wise / NC.

Black Left Unity December 2013

Group portrait at the conclusion of the December 21, 2013 Black Left Unity Network meeting. Seated, left to right: Ajamu Dillahunt, Saladin Muhammad, Abdul Alkalimat, Ashaki Binta, Kathy Knight. Standing, left to right: Roger Newell, J. R. Fleming, T. Menelik Van Der Meer, Dennis Orton, Kia Van Der Meer, Sam Anderson, Shafeah M'Balia, Rose Brewer, Anthony Monteiro, Toussaint Losier, Rukiya Dillahunt, Taliba Obu, Jonathan Stith, Carl Redwood, Tdka Kilimanjaro, Jamal Oliver, Akinjele Umoja.

Black Workers award

The annual Black Workers for Justice event commemorating the death of Dr. King and highlighting his support for workers was held Saturday, April 11 2015 at the NCAE Building located at 700 Salisbury Street. The guest speaker will be Alicia Garza, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

The theme, “Reclaim Dr. King’s Legacy of Resistance: Black Lives Matter/Stop the War on Black America” was selected because it captures the horrible reality we are facing and suggests a way forward. The murders just keep on coming. The world is watching the video of a white police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina gun down a fleeing Walter Scott, a 50 year old 2015 banquet flyer.colorAfrican American man. He was stopped for a minor traffic infraction.

Self-Determination Awards were given to Elandria Williams (cooperative economic development), Robert Dawkins( police accountability), Milton Pitt & Shafeah M'Balia (worker/member) and Mari Caldwell & Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway (youth activist).

Muslims for Social Justice

Muslims for Social Justice was founded in North Carolina in 2013 to offer a liberation theology perspective in Islam. Key founding members included Saladin Muhammad (Black Workers for Justice), Shafeah M'Balia (Black Workers for Justice) and Manzoor Cheema (human rights activists).

MSJ comrades

Muslims for Social Justice supporters February 28, 2015, Manzoor Cheema, Sameer Abdel-Khalek, Ahmad Jitan, Mousa Shehadeh, Faisal R. Khan, Shafeah M'Balia, Sijal Nasralla, Fatimeh Alsayed and Saladin Muhammad.

References

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