Introducing Black Alliance for Peace’s New National Coordinator, Max Rameau

Introducing Black Alliance for Peace’s New National Coordinator, Max Rameau

The Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace is happy to introduce BAP’s new National Coordinator Max Rameau. Max will assume responsibilities from Brother Ajamu Baraka, BAP’s Interim Coordinator since January of this year, on April 1st part-time and will assume full-time responsibilities May 1st. Ajamu will continue as BAP’s Coordinating Committee’s Chairperson and the coordinator of BAP’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights that will be launched in the Fall. 

Max Rameau is a Haitian born Pan-African theorist, campaign strategist, movement scientist and organizer.

While a student in the Washington, DC area, Max was introduced to Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist thought. After moving to Miami, Florida in 1991, he began organizing around a broad range of human rights issues impacting low-income Black communities, including Immigrant rights (particularly Haitian immigrants), economic justice, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, particularly for ex-felons and police abuse, among others.

As a result of the devastating impacts of gentrification taking root during the housing "boom," in the summer of 2006 Max helped found the organization which eventually became known as Take Back the Land, to address 'Land' issues in the Black community. In October 2006, Take Back the Land seized control of a vacant lot in the Liberty City section of Miami and built the Umoja Village, a full urban shantytown, addressing the issues of land, self-determination and homelessness in the Black community. In October 2007, Take Back the Land initiated a bold campaign that sparked a national movement: "liberating" vacant government owned and foreclosed homes and moving homeless families into them in pursuit of the human right to housing and community control over land.

Max Rameau continues to develop movement theory, working with organizations and movements to develop impactful organizing models and campaigns. Max is an organizer with Pan-African Community Action (PACA) based in Washington D.C. and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace.

FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION: Campaign to Open the National People’s Assembly (ANP) in Guinea Bissau

FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION: Campaign to Open the National People’s Assembly (ANP) in Guinea Bissau

FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION!

Campaign to Open the National People’s Assembly (ANP) in Guinea Bissau

The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party calls all organizations, movements, individuals, A-APRP members, contacts, friends, allies and supporters to put pressure on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in solidarity with the struggle being waged by the African Party of Independence of Guinea Bissau (PAIGC), and the duly elected PAI Terra Ranka Coalition. The People of Guinea Bissau demand the opening of the National People’s Assembly (ANP)!

We ask each of you to contact the ECOWAS structures listed below by email and by phone, where possible, on 1st, 2nd and 3rd of February 2024. The objective is to put diplomatic pressure on ECOWAS to open the National People’s Assembly (ANP) in Guinea Bissau. Contact as many of those listed below as often as you can.

Our emails and calls to ECOWAS structures on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of February 2024 will synchronize with actions of the PAI Terra Ranka and the PAIGC on the ground, in Guinea Bissau.

The language of these communications should vary, but the essence is as follows, but do not simply copy and paste, but rather use your own language:

'The doors to Guinea Bissau’s National People's Assembly (ANP) should be opened immediately to allow the democratically elected representatives (Deputies) to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities. We encourage the ECOWAS Permanent Commission to guarantee that the Guinea-Bissau Constitution is respected to avoid unforeseen negative consequences.'

FURTHER INFORMATION FOR ACTION

Link to background information about the situation in Guinea Bissau.

Campagne d’ouverture de l’Assemblée populaire nationale (ANP) en Guinée Bissau

Campanha de Abertura da Assembleia Nacional Popular (ANP) na Guiné Bissau

Banner photo: National Assembly building in Guinea-Bissau, courtesy Wikimedia.

South Africa's Case at ICJ Also Exposes the US and the West

South Africa's Case at ICJ Also Exposes the US and the West

South Africa's Case at ICJ Also Exposes the US and the West

By Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist, 17 Jan 2024

South Africa's charge of genocide against Israel proves that this very serious word should be used more often instead of being treated as a rarity. The U.S. and the nations of the west have committed countless genocides and their actions must be labeled as such.

On January 11, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began hearing the Republic of South Africa’s charge of genocide made  against the state of Israel. Israel ratified the Genocide Convention  and as such it is duty bound to uphold its precepts. The definition of genocide is not hard to find nor is it difficult to understand.

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;

  1. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

  2. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

  3. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

  4. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Cutting off water and electricity, bombing hospitals, and withholding food and medical aid all clearly fall within this definition. Not only has Israel publicly committed these acts, but its officials openly and publicly brag about having done so, and make South Africa’s case easy to prove.

But if there is another point which is made obvious by this definition and that is that the United States has and is committing genocide domestically and internationally. Of course Black people played the biggest role in making this case beginning in 1951 when the Civil Rights Congress published the pamphlet, “We Charge Genocide ,” and documented the case against the U.S. government. The charges are still valid as Black people have been the group primarily victimized by mass incarceration and all the other impacts of racial capitalism, from denial of housing rights to decent medical care.

If Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the United States did the same and assisted others in Libya and Syria and Somalia and Yemen and Haiti. This long list of criminality is one of the reasons that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other officials call South Africa’s charge against Israel “meritless.” If they acknowledge Israel’s genocide it would not only expose U.S. culpability but they would have to acknowledge their own misdeeds as well.

The term genocide must not be thought of as having some sort of high bar that can only be used in rare circumstances. On the contrary, it should be used much more often so that U.S. guilt can be exposed. The U.S. practice of imposing economic coercive measures, commonly known as sanctions, prevent the people of Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and 30 other countries, from securing their basic needs of food and medical care. Economic coercive measures are a war crime by definition as they impose collective punishment  on civilians.

The Republic of South Africa has done the world a great service, not only because it is revealing the seriousness of Israel’s crimes, but because it also reveals how these crimes have been normalized around the world. Of course U.S. allies like Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom join in denying South Africa’s claim. First they do as they’re told because they are reliable and good little vassal states, but they have joined in U.S. crimes and they also have their own histories of genocide.

The first genocide of the 20th century took place in Namibia, then a German colony, from 1904 to 1908, when thousands of the Herero people were murdered as they attempted to free themselves from imperial rule. The sun never set on the British empire because of its brutality committed as recently as the 1950s in Kenya’s revolutionary struggle when mass killings and concentration camps were used to put down the rebellion. The systematic destruction of records  which documented these atrocities is proof of Britain’s guilt in committing genocide.

The attention brought to the ICJ case in the Hague is an opportunity to lift the veil of secrecy and complicity and make the world aware that normalized practices are in fact genocidal. Every war and intervention ranging from regime change in Haiti to the full scale invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were committed with the intent to destroy national groups. The response should not be to stop using the word genocide, but instead to make its usage more common. Doing otherwise allows the guilty to act with impunity.

South Africa has created a crisis for the world and should be applauded for doing so. Now millions of people know how genocide is defined and know that their nations are guilty of the practice. There is now less fear about naming names and a greater willingness to speak truthfully about what is accepted far too often. The nations of the Collective West as they call themselves, have written history and exculpated themselves despite being perpetrators for centuries. Israeli officials are genocidaires but they are not alone. All of those who aid and abet must be called to account too.

————————————————— 

The article was first published in Black Agenda Report.

Margaret Kimberley is Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents, and on the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Over 800 Organizations Globally Sign On To Letter Urging International Support For South Africa’s Genocide Case Against the State of Israel

Over 800 Organizations Globally Sign On To Letter Urging International Support For South Africa’s Genocide Case Against the State of Israel

*****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*****

Over 800 Organizations Globally Sign On To Letter Urging International Support For South Africa’s Genocide Case Against the State of Israel

New Coalition Calls for Global Mobilization As Hearing Before the World Court Begins on January 11

 

CONTACTS:

Adrienne Pine, Popular Resistance, 202-652-5601, adrienne@quotha.net

Lamis Deek, Palestine Assembly for Liberation,  212-226-3999, Deek@DeekDictorAdi.com

Genie Silver, WILPF US, 610-283-1376, rhsilver@comcast.net

 

United States - The newly-formed International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP) issued a sign-on letter* on January 3, 2024 that garnered over 800 organizational endorsements from around the world in less than one week. In addition to the initiating organizations noted here, signing organizations represent broad social movements, including World March of Women and the International People’s Assembly, Palestinian-led and Palestinian solidarity movements such as Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and the Palestinian NGO Network, as well as human rights and legal groups, unions, and religious organizations of all faiths.

“It is important for La Via Campesina to support the South African initiative. What is happening in Palestine is an atrocity. In particular, the use of starvation as a weapon of war is part of a strategy of genocide that we need to denounce. The expulsion of farmers and land grabs in Gaza as well as the West Bank, is also part of a strategy of ethnic cleansing,” said Morgan Ody of the Confédération paysanne (France) and General Coordinator of La Vía Campesina International. “La Via Campesina calls upon the governments of the world, and in particular progressive governments and those in the Global South, to do everything in their power to stop Israel’s apartheid and colonization. Those governments have the responsibility to coordinate their efforts in order to ensure a future for Palestine and for all Palestinian people, and to make sure that those responsible for Israel’s crimes against humanity are held accountable.”

The coalition letter urges all signing organizations to press their “governments to immediately file a Declaration of Intervention in support of the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice to stop the killing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” So far, Malaysia and Turkiye, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which represents 57 member countries on four continents, have publicly supported South Africa’s case. Jordan reports that it intends to take the more legally substantive step of submitting a Declaration of Intervention. Members of ICGSP are working closely with a number of other countries that are in the process of doing the same.

“The South African filing before the ICJ marks a critical juncture which tests the global will to salvage the laws and systems which were designed to safeguard not merely human rights; but to preserve humanity itself,” emphasizes Lamis Deek, co-founder of The Global Legal Alliance for Palestine and the PAL Commission on War Crimes. “Genocide is the highest crime and none has been so publicly documented as the Israeli Genocide in Palestine. The sincerity of states' commitment to the principles of the Geneva and Genocide Conventions is now under heavy scrutiny. The very least states can do is to submit Declarations of Intervention as a small part of fulfilling their obligations under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, to assure their people—and humanity—that they have lost neither their moral compass nor abdicated their obligations under international law.

The sign-on letter states:

“Many countries have rightly expressed their horror at the State of Israel's genocidal actions, war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed against Palestinians. Israeli Occupying Forces have bombed hospitals, residences, United Nations refugee centers, schools, places of worship and escape routes, killing and injuring tens of thousands of Palestinians since October 7, 2023. More than half of the dead are women and children. Israeli leaders have made brazenly genocidal statements openly declaring their intention to permanently and completely displace Palestinians from their own land.”

Despite the clear evidence of genocidal actions being committed daily by Israeli Occupying Forces, the State of Israel is actively soliciting nations to deny its atrocities and denounce South Africa’s case. At this moment, the United States, a major backer of the Israeli State that has vetoed three resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the United Nations Security Council, stands alone in denying that Israel is committing genocide.

Edith Ballantyne, former Secretary General and International President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, warns, “I write from my personal experience over ten decades, spanning two world wars and living through fascism, with the absolute conviction that the basis of the conflict must be solved in a legal, political and non-violent way as the only means to achieve permanent peace desperately needed by the world’s peoples and for the survival of our planet.” She adds, “Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was involved in the Middle East conflict since the 1920s when it recognized that what was happening in Palestine was destined to be catastrophic. The genocidal war the government of Israel is waging in the Occupied Palestinian Territories against the Palestinian People must be stopped. I urge all to challenge their governments to live up to the principles of the UN Charter and international law, including human rights and humanitarian law.”

The International Court of Justice, also called the World Court, will hear South Africa’s case against the Israeli State on January 11 and 12, 2024. The ICSGP is calling on endorsing organizations to join actions of support at The Hague during the hearing and to hold local rallies and vigils, including expressions of gratitude and solidarity at South African embassies, this week. Details about the hearing and where to watch it are here: https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240103-pre-01-00-en.pdf

*The full text of the letter and an updated list of signers can be found here: https://bit.ly/Genocide_Convention_Letter

The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine is currently building global support for this effort by circulating a sign-on letter, which already has over 800 endorsing organizations. The letter can be read and endorsed here.

International Coalition of Human Rights and Antiwar Organizations forms to Demand End to Genocide in Palestine

International Coalition of Human Rights and Antiwar Organizations forms to Demand End to Genocide in Palestine

****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE****

International Coalition of Human Rights and Antiwar Organizations forms to Demand End to Genocide in Palestine

Social Movements Call on Nations to Support the South African Petition to the World Court on Israeli Genocide with Declarations of Intervention.

Contacts:

Adrienne Pine 202-652-5601, adrienne@quotha.net

Ajamu Baraka  201-292-4591, ajamubaraka2@gmail.com

Suzanne Adely  773-510-7446, suzanne.adely@gmail.com

Lamis Deek  212-226-3999, lamisjamalesq@yahoo.com

United States - On December 30, the newly-formed International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine convened around the urgent need for nations to invoke the Genocide Convention as a way to end the State of Israel’s devastating bombing campaign and additional war crimes being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. That effort advanced on December 29 when South Africa submitted a well-documented case against Israel to the International Court of Justice.

The Coalition—which includes Progressive International, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Black Alliance for Peace, Popular Resistance, CODEPINK, the National Lawyers Guild and numerous other groups—strongly supports the call issued on January 2 by the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Coordinating Committee (PAACC) urging governments to support South Africa’s complaint with Declarations of Intervention, which can be filed before or after the hearing, scheduled to take place on January 11 and 12, 2024.

Declarations of Intervention in support of South Africa’s invocation of the Genocide Convention against Israel will increase the likelihood that a positive finding of the crime of genocide will be enforced by the United Nations such that actions will be taken to end all acts of genocide and those who are responsible for the acts will be held accountable.

“It's imperative that more states follow South Africa's historic leadership demanding Israel is held accountable under international law,” said Suzanne Adely, president of the National Lawyers Guild and member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She added, “One clear and immediate way to do that is to file Declarations of Intervention supporting South Africa's filing in the ICJ under the Genocide Convention. The increasing global isolation of Israel and the US and their European allies is an indicator that this is a key moment for popular movements to move their governments in the direction of taking these steps and being on the right side of history.” Adely led an international delegation to Cairo last November to demand the opening of Rafah border crossing.

Ajamu Baraka, chair of the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace, which has repeatedly condemned Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in occupied Palestine, stated, “The action by the South African government is a courageous attempt to do no less than salvage the credibility of the international mechanisms that were meant to protect human rights and international law. The South African petition is a reminder that it is a legal and moral imperative for states and international civil society to oppose impunity. Genocide has been identified as one of the most egregious international crimes. If the Israeli state and its backers are allowed to escape justice and international condemnation, it will strip the current international system of justice of any legitimacy.”

Lamis Deek, a Palestinian attorney based in New York, whose firm convened the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation's Commission on War Crimes Justice, Reparations, and Return and co-launched the Global Legal Alliance for Palestine, added that "This is the rare case where collective social pressure urging governments to support the South African case can be a sharp turning point for Palestine. Through the ICJ, South Africa is poised to strike a decisive blow against this brutal genocide and torture campaign led by Israel in coordination with the United States. We need more states to file supporting interventions-  and we need the court to feel the watchful eye of the masses so as to withstand what will be extreme US political pressure on the Court.   International Humanitarian Laws and institutions are meant to be, and must be seen as, tools for the people, not distant abstractions. People can- and should-  play a strategic and powerful role by integrating this advocacy into their solidarity work, not only until their governments file supporting interventions but until the ICJ delivers justice."

The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine urges human rights, labor, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and other groups to increase public pressure by mobilizing to demand that their respective countries immediately submit Declarations of Intervention to the International Court of Justice. No matter how the World Court decides South Africa’s case, the coalition is committed to ending the genocide in Palestine and will continue to take action to make this the reality.

The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine is currently building global support for this effort by circulating a sign-on letter, which already has over 100 endorsing organizations. The letter can be read and endorsed here.

The A-APRP Condemns the Attack on the PAIGC and the PAI Terra Ranka Coalition

The A-APRP Condemns the Attack on the PAIGC and the PAI Terra Ranka Coalition

The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) and the African Party of Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) are one!

“When the PAIGC and its PAI Terra Ranka Coalition democratically won the absolute majority on 4 June 2023, we sent our message of congratulations after the official results were published. We also congratulated the inauguration of the PAI Terra Ranka Coalition government and the election of brother and comrade Domingos “DSP” Simões Pereira as the President of the National People’s Assembly (ANP), the second figure in the state of Guinea-Bissau.”

READ MORE FULL STATEMENT: The Cause of Violence and Imprisonment on 30 November – 1 December 2023…

Banner photo: Man walking on a dirt road by a sign that says ““La Guinee – Bissau, veut et merite la paix” (English “Guinee - Bissau, wants and deserves peace". (courtey africanliberty.org).

U.S. Peace Council Calls for No Fly Zone over Gaza

U.S. Peace Council Calls for No Fly Zone over Gaza

U.S. Peace Council Statement: End the Israeli-US Attack on the Palestinians of Gaza!

October 30, 2023

Wave upon wave of Israeli aircraft and missiles have been battering the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. This violence — the most brutal for decades — has already expended more firepower than the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and has already taken more lives of civilians in a week than have died in Ukraine. It is as if the Israeli government — backed fully by the United States — wants to turn Gaza into a ruin so as to remove the Palestinians in another act of ethnic cleansing, mimicking the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948.

The United States government vetoed UN resolutions to allow for a humanitarian ceasefire; the US president has joined the Israelis in an information war about the numbers of war dead; the US military has moved a massive naval strike group into the Eastern Mediterranean; and the US defense establishment — in contravention of the Leahy Law (1999) that proscribes arming militaries that are committing gross human rights violations — has sent military aid to Israel.

Both the Israeli and the US governments have violated humanitarian law, and the government of Israel has committed both war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians.

We call upon the government of Brazil, which holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, to table either an emergency resolution or to release a president’s statement calling for a ‘no-fly zone’ over Gaza. The Egyptian air force, billeted nearby at Abu Suweir Air Base, can enforce a ‘no-fly zone’ to prevent continued bombing of Gaza and allow the UN and other aid agencies to bring humanitarian relief to the beleaguered Palestinians.

The U.S. Peace Council calls upon all people to stand up against this violent crime against humanity. Join the November 4th national mobilizations against this genocide by Israel, and against the US role in this war.

Banner photo: ….

USPC Statement: Israel, and US, Bear Full Responsibility for the Ongoing Bloodshed!

USPC Statement: Israel, and US, Bear Full Responsibility for the Ongoing Bloodshed!

Israel, and US, Bear Full Responsibility for the Ongoing Bloodshed!

This is the Inevitable Result of 75 Years of Illegal Occupation and Brutal Violation of Palestinians’ Human Rights

“We are in a state of war.... The enemy will pay a price like they have never known before,” declared Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, immediately after the beginning of the Hamas forces’ military operation against Israel.

Netanyahu’s words conceal a fundamental historical fact: Israel has been in a state of war against the people of Palestine, whom he now blatantly calls “the enemy,” for the past 75 years. The “enemy” he is referring to are the Palestinian people, who have been enduring 75 years of violent occupation, bombings, mass arrests and imprisonment, torture, assassinations, and exile at the hands of the Israeli State, just because they would refuse to submit to the illegal occupation of their land and the blatant violation of their fundamental human rights by the Israeli occupation forces.

More deceiving is the claim that this was a “surprise” attack by the Palestinians. But looking back at the shameful history of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people in the past seven decades, and its recent offending actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, no rational mind would be “surprised” by the Palestinian reaction.

The historically inevitable bloodshed that has started, and has already taken too many lives, is the Israeli States’ own doing. The State of Israel has no other party to blame for this human catastrophe than itself.

However, this is not where the blame stops. The government of the United States is equally — if not more — responsible for the current tragedy. Decades of unconditional support for the Israeli State’s violations of international law and human rights, tens of billions of dollars’ worth of military aid to Israel with eyes closed to the atrocities and terrorism committed by Israeli military and settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories, and persistent blocking of every effort by the international community to call Israel into account for its illegal actions, all have contributed to this horrendous situation.

We call upon the international community to take every necessary collective action to stop this bloodshed based upon the globally recognized international law and the United Nations Charter.

This bloodshed will not be the last until the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is ended and the human rights of the Palestinian people are recognized and fully realized.

U.S. Peace Council

October 8, 2023

Banner photo: A building being bombed in Hamas-Israel war. (courtesy uspeacecouncil.org)

Revolution in Sahel? Military Coups in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger

Revolution in Sahel? Military Coups in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger

As the U.S. and France move to interfere in the Sahel region of West Africa, Niger, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali have spoken up to defend their sovereign rights and declare their determination to be free from western hegemony.

Revolution in Sahel? Military Coups in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger

On July 26, 2023 in a military coup d’etat, the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) ousted Niger president Mohamed Bazoum and took control of the country. This followed recent coups in Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry, Mali, and Chad. These countries are bound together by the Sahel, a semi-arid region on the edge of the Sahara desert that stretches from the Atlantic ocean in the west and to the Red Sea in the east. The Sahel region suffers from a number of complex factors resulting from French political and economic domination designed to exploit the region’s vast natural and human resources, while subordinating the region’s sovereignty to France. The U.S. and European powers have collaborated to promote an imperialist agenda. Consider the NATO led invasion of Libya, which led to the murder and overthrow of Pan-Africanist leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Libya then became a breeding ground for Western armed terrorist groups that destabilize the region. Because of these ongoing conflicts instigated and perpetuated by Western imperialist powers, life in the Sahel has been, and remains, hellish….

READ FULL PAPER ON aaprp-intl.org

Banner photo: Crowds express support for the new Nigerien government. "France must go. Long live Niger." (Courtesy AFP via Getty Images)

Kawsachun News | ‘Zone of Peace’ Campaign Launched

Kawsachun News | ‘Zone of Peace’ Campaign Launched

Kawsachun News | ‘Zone of Peace’ Campaign Launched

The Black Alliance for Peace, along with other organizations, today launched a new campaign to make the Americas a ‘Zone of Peace’, free from imperialism and foreign intervention. The campaign follows a call from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in 2014, declaring the region a Zone of Peace.

Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace said in his opening remarks at the press conference launching this campaign: “We recognize that we’re not going to be able to transform ourselves and transform the politics of the region unless we have a massive, region-wide popular movement”.

The organization is also celebrating its sixth anniversary today, having been founded on the anniversary of MLK’s assassination.

READ MORE ON KAWSACHUN NEWS.

Banner photo: Panelist at the launch event held at the Asociación Cubana de las Naciones Unidas (ACNU, Cuban Association of the United Nations) in Havana. (Courtesy BAP delegation member.)

Resumen Latinoamericano | New Campaign to Reinvigorate the Establishment of Zone of Peace in Our Americas

Resumen Latinoamericano | New Campaign to Reinvigorate the Establishment of Zone of Peace in Our Americas

Resumen Latinoamericano | New Campaign to Reinvigorate the Establishment of Zone of Peace in Our Americas

By Bill Hackwell on April 4, 2023

Today in a press conference in Washington DC the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) along with key allies launched a popular collective campaign to promote the urgent need to establish a Zone of Peace in Our Americas. The press conference coincided with similar events that took place in Havana, Cuba; and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The “Zone of Peace” concept emerged from the January 29, 2014, meeting of the heads of state and governments of the Community of

Washington DC

Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), all of which declared Latin America and the Caribbean should be seen and respected as a “Zone of Peace.” The BAP effort is geared towards activating the popular movement element to bolster the support to those states for its implementation across the region.

Ajamu Baraka, chairperson of the coordinating committee of BAP explained that the deliberate decision to launch the campaign on April 4 was to coincide with the founding of Black Alliance for Peace on April  4, 2018 and to connect it to  the lifelong dedication to peace of Martin Luther King who was assassinated on this day in 1968. “Today we make this declaration to the world to counter the US’s commitment to militarism. We have the majority of people on our side, but we need a vision that we are more than what we are today, we need to build capacity.”

Havana Cuba

Jemima Pierre, from the  BAP co ordinating committee explained how the US wants to continue their Monroe Doctrine  mandate by invading Haiti and through the US military’s Southern Command they want to extend militarism throughout Latin American.

Also speaking was the editor of Black Agenda Report Margaret Kimberly and Nina Macapiniac from Bayan – USA who warned of the US military expansion in the Pacific with the announcement by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration in February his approval of an expansion of the U.S. military presence in the country to four additional Philippine military bases from the five existing sites.

Initial Core Demands of the Zone of Peace in the Americas are:

  1.  Dismantle SOUTHCOM. Shut down the 76 U.S. military bases in the region

  2. End U.S./NATO military exercises. Close foreign military bases, installations and enclaves, as well as withdraw foreign occupation troops

  3. Disband U.S.-sponsored state terrorist training facilities. Shutter the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation” (WHINSEC)—formerly the School of the Americas—in Fort Benning, Georgia, United States, and terminate U.S.—as well as foreign—training of police forces

  4. Oppose military intervention into Haiti. Support the people(s)-centered movement for democracy and self-determination

  5. Return Guantánamo to Cuba. The United States must give back to the Cuban people and their government the territory it illegally occupies

  6. Sanctions are war. End illegal sanctions and blockades of regional states, including all economic warfare and lawfare, and recognize their sovereignty

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – US

For more information on the campaign go to:

communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

Banner photo: Screenshot zoom video of panelist at the launch press conference in Washington DC at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Murder of Tyre Nichols Proves Policing is An Outgrowth of Colonialism

Murder of Tyre Nichols Proves Policing is An Outgrowth of Colonialism

Institute for Public Accuracy News Release

Community Control Over Police

February 1, 2023

February is Black History Month. Many have been startled that Black officers were involved in the killing of Tyre Nichols. But some analysts have been warning that the issue is the structure and nature of police forces, not simply their ethnic composition.

MAX RAMEAU, afrimax@niainteractive.com

Rameau works with Pan-African Community Action and has been an advocate of community control over police.

See the piece “Community Control of Public Safety: Building a Transitional Program for Power” at Black Agenda Report, which quotes Rameau.

He argues that the purpose of much policing is an outgrowth of colonialism and is set up to protect a system of massive inequality rather than protecting human life.

He said today: “Some Black cops wear dashikis and celebrate Martin Luther King Day. So why do they arrest and brutalize Black people? Because that is their job. They work for a system that exploits Black people. Because Black people do not like being exploited, they must be oppressed in order to facilitate the exploitation. The job of the police is to oppress Black communities in order to facilitate their exploitation. That is the job of ALL police: the white and Black ones; the mean ones and the nice ones.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:

Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

February 1, 2023

Institute for Public Accuracy

980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045

accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org

@accuracy * ipaccuracy

An Open Letter to His Excellency, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), President of Mexico, on the Renewal of the UN Occupation of Haiti

An Open Letter to His Excellency, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), President of Mexico, on the Renewal of the UN Occupation of Haiti

Español abajo
Kreyol anba

NO TO OCCUPATION! YES TO SELF-DETERMINATION!

An Open Letter to His Excellency, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), President of Mexico, on the Renewal of the UN Occupation of Haiti

Dear President López Obrador,

We, the undersigned, condemn in the strongest possible terms Mexico’s spearheading of the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) in Haiti. The Haitian people view BINUH’s presence as a foreign occupation that, since 2004, has suppressed Haiti’s independence and sovereignty. We agree. We want you, President AMLO, to seriously consider your role and the role of the Mexican Republic in extending the UN’s mission and continuing the repression of the Haitian people. 

Over the years, we have seen you emerge as one of the more progressive voices in the hemisphere. We have applauded your commitments to forging new, more equitable, relations between the nations and peoples of the Americas, especially against western and northern bullying and dominance. For this reason, we believe you should not allow yourself to carry out US and Western neo-colonial policies in Haiti. Since you support self-determination for the region, all countries must be allowed to assert their independence, including Haiti. The renewal of the UN mandate is against Haitian sovereignty. We do not want you to end up on the wrong side of history.

The UN Mission to Haiti Is Foreign Occupation and Denial of Sovereignty

As you surely know, the United Nations became an occupying force in Haiti after the U.S.-France-Canada-led 2004 coup d’état against Haiti’s democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Following the coup, the UN took over from U.S. forces. Under Chapter VII of the UN charter, the UN established the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (or MINUSTAH), for the tasks of military occupation under the guise of establishing peace and security. The Workers Party-led Brazilian government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva then betrayed the Haitian people and undercut Haiti’s sovereignty by agreeing to lead the military wing of the UN mission in Haiti. 

The history of the UN in Haiti has been a history of violence. An expensive, multi-billion dollar operation, MINUSTAH had between 6,000 and 12,000 military troops and police stationed in Haiti alongside thousands of civilian personnel. Like the first U.S. occupation (1915-1934), the UN occupation under MINUSTAH was marked by its brutality and racism towards the Haitian people. Civilians were brutally attacked and assassinated. “Peace-keepers” committed sexual crimes. UN soldiers dumped human waste into rivers used for drinking water, unleashing a cholera epidemic that killed between 10,000 and 50,000 people – and to which the UN has still not been held accountable.

The Core Group — an international coalition of self-proclaimed “friends” of Haiti — came together  during the MINUSTAH occupation. Non-Black, un-elected, and anti-democratic, the goal of the Core Group is to oversee Haiti’s governance. Meanwhile, as with the first occupation, the United States and MINUSTAH trained and militarized Haiti’s police and security forces, often rehabilitating and reintegrating rogue members. The United States, in collusion with MINUSTAH and the Core Group, also over-rode Haitian democracy, installing both neo-Duvalierist Michel Martelly and his Haitian Tèt Kale Party (PHTK), alongside Martelly’s protege and successor, the late Jovenel Moïse.

It is claimed that this occupation officially ended in 2017 with the dissolution of MINUSTAH. But the UN has remained in Haiti under a new acronym: BINUH, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. BINUH has had an outsized role in Haitian internal political affairs. For example, soon after Moïse was assassinated, its representative, Helen La Lime, asserted that Claude Joseph would be installed as Haiti’s leader. Later, the “Core Group” switched gears and demanded that Ariel Henry should be president. And this is exactly what happened when a “new” Haitian government was announced on July 20, 2021, with Henry as leader. This, without any say from the Haitian people, without any pretense of a democratic process, without any concern for Haiti’s sovereignty.

UN Occupation Increases Violence and Instability

Haiti currently has an unelected, unpopular, unaccountable, and illegitimate prime minister, propped up by the United States and the western nations. Meanwhile, Haiti’s security situation has deteriorated considerably as groups, armed by the transnational Haitian and Levantine elite, continue their attacks on the Haitian people. We must emphasize that, in the eighteen years that the United Nations mission has participated in the occupation of Haiti, the Haitian people have only experienced violence and political instability. You must recognize the foreign occupation of Haiti has left it in a state of disarray and violence. 

For this reason, we have also been disappointed in your government’s participation in the U.S. government’s racist migration policies. While we are alarmed by the stories of the poor living conditions and the violent treatment of the growing population of Haitian migrants within Mexico, Mexico has also colluded with the United States — and against the people of the Americas — by accepting payment to militarize its northern and southern borders on behalf of the United States. This has led to the further criminalization and violent treatment of all migrants, but especially Black migrants. Your government has also agreed to the United States’ “Remain in Mexico” policy, which flagrantly violates international law. 

Summit of the Americas 

We were heartened when you called for fair representation and recognition of sovereignty of all nations at the 2022 Summit of the Americas. In May, the Black Alliance for Peace called for a boycott of the Summit to protest U.S. power and policy in the hemisphere. The people of our Americas declared their opposition to it, stating clearly that one cannot be a partner and a hegemon at the same time. The United States excluded nations that they claimed were not democratic. Yet, Ariel Henry was invited, even though he was placed in power at the behest of the United States and CORE Group, and without any democratic input from the Haitian people.

In boycotting the Summit of the Americas you, Mr. President, declared:

“I believe in the need to change the policy that has been imposed for centuries, the exclusion, the desire to dominate, the lack of respect for the sovereignty of the countries and the independence of every country.”

We ask, Mr. President, what about respect for the sovereignty and independence of Haiti? Does that country not count? How do you justify your actions towards Haiti and its people, including migrants, that express the opposite?

No to Occupation. Yes to Self-Determination.

The United Nations has not respected the sovereignty of the Haitian people. The Haitian Parliament has never ratified the UN occupations. After multiple failed missions, a renewal of the BINUH mandate represents a direct attack on the Haitian people’s right to self-determination.

We ask that you think with all seriousness about the relationships among nations in our region. All nations should be able to chart their own destiny, not just some. You must know the history of the proud Haitian people whose Revolution changed the course of world history and material aid helped the liberation of the Americas from colonial rule and enslavement. Despite the continued affront to its self-determination, the people of Haiti will continue to fight for its liberation.

Mexico should contribute to the end of the occupation of Haiti, not its extension. The Americas cannot be free and sovereign unless all countries are free and sovereign. 

Signed,

Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
Caribbean Solidarity Network
U.S. Peace Council
MOLEGHAF
Family Action Network Movement (FANM)
Spirit of Mandela
KOMOKODA (Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti)
Foundation Frantz Fanon
United National Anti-War Coalition
Friends of Latin America
Alliance for Global Justice
Community Movement Builders
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Lowcountry Action Committee
Mapinduzi
Pan-African Community Action (PACA)
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice
Socialist Unity Party
Struggle La Lucha newspaper
ANTICONQUISTA
Workers Voice Socialist Movement
Latin America Solidarity Coalition of Western Massachusetts
Massachusetts Peace Action
Troika Kollective
Peace Action Wisconsin
G-REBLS
Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition
Fondasyon Mapou
Seattle Anti-War Coalition
Claudia Jones School for Political Education
Los Angeles Movement for Advancing Socialism
Party of Communists USA
Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
Luqman Nation Media
Plymouth Congregational UCC Board of Social Action
Malcolm X Center for Human Rights & Self Determination
Ujima People's Progress Party
Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
All-African People’s Revolutionary Party
#NoMore Global Movement
Ethio-American Development Council
NY NJ Hope for Ethiopia
Unión del Barrio

¡NO A LA OCUPACIÓN! ¡SÍ A LA AUTODETERMINACIÓN!

Una Carta Abierta a Su Excelencia, el Sr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), Presidente de México, sobre la Renovación de la Ocupación de la ONU en Haití

Estimado Presidente López Obrador,

Nosotros, los abajo firmantes, condenamos en los términos más enérgicos el liderazgo de México en la renovación del mandato de la Oficina Integrada de las Naciones Unidas (BINUH) en Haití. El pueblo haitiano ve la presencia de la BINUH como una ocupación extranjera que, desde 2004, ha reprimido la independencia y la soberanía de Haití. Estamos de acuerdo. Queremos que usted, presidente AMLO, considere seriamente su papel y el papel de la República Mexicana en la extensión de la misión de la ONU y la continuación de la represión del pueblo haitiano.

A lo largo de los años, lo hemos visto emerger como una de las voces más progresistas del hemisferio. Hemos aplaudido sus compromisos de forjar relaciones nuevas y más equitativas entre las naciones y los pueblos de las Américas, especialmente contra la intimidación y el dominio de occidente y el norte. Por esta razón, creemos que no debe permitirse llevar a cabo políticas neocoloniales estadounidenses y occidentales en Haití. Dado que usted apoya la autodeterminación de la región, se debe permitir que todos los países afirmen su independencia, incluido Haití. La renovación del mandato de la ONU atenta contra la soberanía haitiana. No queremos que usted termine en el lado equivocado de la historia.

La misión de la ONU en Haití Es Ocupación Extranjera y Negación de la Soberanía

Como seguramente sabrá, las Naciones Unidas se convirtieron en una fuerza de ocupación en Haití después del golpe de Estado de 2004 liderado por los Estados Unidos, Francia y Canadá contra el presidente democráticamente electo de Haití, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Después del golpe, la ONU reemplazó a las fuerzas estadounidenses. Bajo el Capítulo VII de la carta de la ONU, la ONU estableció la Misión de Estabilización de las Naciones Unidas en Haití (o MINUSTAH), para las tareas de ocupación militar bajo el pretexto de establecer la paz y la seguridad. El gobierno brasileño de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, encabezado por el Partido de los Trabajadores, traicionó al pueblo haitiano y socavó la soberanía de Haití al aceptar encabezar el ala militar de la misión de la ONU en Haití.

La historia de la ONU en Haití ha sido una historia de violencia. Una operación costosa y multimillonaria, la MINUSTAH tenía entre 6.000 y 12.000 soldados y policías militares estacionados en Haití junto a miles de personal civil. Al igual que la primera ocupación estadounidense (1915-1934), la ocupación de la ONU bajo la MINUSTAH estuvo marcada por su brutalidad y racismo hacia el pueblo haitiano. Los civiles fueron brutalmente atacados y asesinados. Los “mantenedores de la paz” cometieron delitos sexuales. Los soldados de la ONU vertieron desechos humanos en los ríos que se utilizan para el agua potable, lo que desató una epidemia de cólera que mató a entre 10.000 y 50.000 personas, y de la que la ONU todavía no ha rendido cuentas.

El Core Group, una coalición internacional de autoproclamados “amigos” de Haití, se reunió durante la ocupación de la MINUSTAH. No negro, no electo y antidemocrático, el objetivo de The Core Group es supervisar el gobierno de Haití. Mientras tanto, al igual que con la primera ocupación, Estados Unidos y la MINUSTAH entrenaron y militarizaron a la policía y las fuerzas de seguridad de Haití, a menudo rehabilitando y reintegrando a miembros rebeldes. Los Estados Unidos, en connivencia con la MINUSTAH y el Core Group, también anuló la democracia haitiana, instalando tanto al neoduvalierista Michel Martelly como a su Partido Haitiano Tèt Kale (PHTK), junto al protegido y sucesor de Martelly, el difunto Jovenel Moïse.

Se afirma que esta ocupación terminó oficialmente en 2017 con la disolución de la MINUSTAH. Pero la ONU se ha quedado en Haití bajo un nuevo acrónimo: BINUH, la Oficina Integrada de las Naciones Unidas en Haití. BINUH ha tenido un papel descomunal en los asuntos políticos internos de Haití. Por ejemplo, poco después del asesinato de Moïse, su representante, Helen La Lime, afirmó que Claude Joseph sería instalado como líder de Haití. Más tarde, el “Grupo Central” cambió de marcha y exigió que Ariel Henry fuera presidente. Y esto es exactamente lo que sucedió cuando se anunció un “nuevo” gobierno haitiano el 20 de julio de 2021, con Henry como líder. Esto, sin ningún poder de decisión del pueblo haitiano, sin ninguna pretensión de un proceso democrático, sin ninguna preocupación por la soberanía de Haití.

La ocupación de la ONU aumenta la violencia y la inestabilidad

Haití tiene actualmente un primer ministro no electo, impopular, ilegítimo, que no rinde cuentas apoyado por los Estados Unidos y las naciones occidentales. 

Mientras tanto, la situación de seguridad de Haití se ha deteriorado considerablemente a medida que grupos, armados por la élite transnacional haitiana y levantina, continúan sus ataques contra el pueblo haitiano. Debemos enfatizar que, en los dieciocho años que la misión de las Naciones Unidas ha participado en la ocupación de Haití, el pueblo haitiano sólo ha experimentado violencia e inestabilidad política. Debe usted reconocer que la ocupación extranjera de Haití lo ha dejado en un estado de desorden y violencia.

Por esta razón, también nos ha decepcionado la participación de su gobierno en las políticas migratorias racistas del gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Si bien estamos alarmados por las historias de las malas condiciones de vida y el trato violento de la creciente población de inmigrantes haitianos en de México, México también se ha confabulado con Estados Unidos—y contra los pueblos de las Américas—al aceptar pagos para militarizar sus fronteras del norte y el sur en nombre de los Estados Unidos. Esto ha llevado a una mayor criminalización y trato violento de todos los migrantes, pero especialmente de los migrantes negros. Su gobierno también ha aceptado la política estadounidense de “Permanecer en México”, que viola flagrantemente el derecho internacional.

Cumbre de las Americas

Nos sentimos alentamos cuando usted pidió una representación justa y el reconocimiento de la soberanía de todas las naciones en la Cumbre de las Américas de 2022. En mayo, la Alianza Negra por la Paz llamó a boicotear la Cumbre para protestar contra el poder y la política de los Estados Unidos en el hemisferio. Los pueblos de nuestra América se declararon en contra, dejando claro que no se puede ser socio y hegemónico al mismo tiempo. Los Estados Unidos excluyó a las naciones que, según ellos, no eran democráticas. Sin embargo, se invitó a Ariel Henry, a pesar de que fue puesto en el poder a instancias de los Estados Unidos y del Grupo CORE, y sin ninguna aportación democrática del pueblo haitiano.

Al boicotear la Cumbre de las Américas usted, señor Presidente, declaró:

“Creo en la necesidad de cambiar la política que se ha impuesto durante siglos, la exclusión, el afán de dominación, la falta de respeto a la soberanía de los países y la independencia de cada país.”

Le preguntamos, señor Presidente, ¿qué pasa con el respeto a la soberanía e independencia de Haití? ¿Ese país no cuenta? ¿Cómo justifica sus acciones hacia Haití y su gente, incluidos los migrantes, que expresan lo contrario?

No a la Ocupación. Sí a la Autodeterminación.

Las Naciones Unidas no han respetado la soberanía del pueblo haitiano. El parlamento haitiano nunca ha ratificado las ocupaciones de la ONU. Después de múltiples misiones fallidas, la renovación del mandato de la BINUH representa un ataque directo al derecho del pueblo haitiano a la autodeterminación.

Les pedimo que piensen con toda seriedad en las relaciones entre las naciones de nuestra región. Todas las naciones deberían poder trazar su propio destino, no solo algunas. Debes conocer la historia del orgulloso pueblo haitiano cuya Revolución cambió el curso de la historia mundial y la ayuda material ayudó a la liberación de las Américas del dominio colonial y la esclavitud. A pesar de la continua afrenta a su autodeterminación, el pueblo de Haití seguirá luchando por su liberación. México debe contribuir al fin de la ocupación de Haití, no a su extensión. Las Américas no pueden ser libres y soberanas a menos que todos los países sean libres y soberanos.

Firmado,

Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
Caribbean Solidarity Network
U.S. Peace Council
MOLEGHAF
Family Action Network Movement (FANM)
Spirit of Mandela
KOMOKODA (Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti)
Foundation Frantz Fanon
United National Anti-War Coalition
Friends of Latin America
Alliance for Global Justice
Community Movement Builders
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Lowcountry Action Committee
Mapinduzi
Pan-African Community Action (PACA)
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice
Socialist Unity Party
Struggle La Lucha newspaper
ANTICONQUISTA
Workers Voice Socialist Movement
Latin America Solidarity Coalition of Western Massachusetts
Massachusetts Peace Action
Troika Kollective
Peace Action Wisconsin
G-REBLS
Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition
Fondasyon Mapou
Seattle Anti-War Coalition
Claudia Jones School for Political Education
Los Angeles Movement for Advancing Socialism
Party of Communists USA
Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
Luqman Nation Media
Plymouth Congregational UCC Board of Social Action
Malcolm X Center for Human Rights & Self Determination
Ujima People's Progress Party
Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
All-African People’s Revolutionary Party
#NoMore Global Movement
Ethio-American Development Council
NY NJ Hope for Ethiopia
Unión del Barrio

Non Pou Okipasyon!  Wi Pou Otodetèminasyon!

Yon lèt ouvè pou Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) Sou renouvèlman Misyon Okipasyon Nasyonzini an Ayiti

  

Chè Prezidan López Obrador,

Nou menm, siyatè ki anba yo, nou kondane nan pi fò tèm posib ke Meksik ap dirije renouvèlman manda Biwo entegre Nasyonzini an (BINUH) ann Ayiti. Pèp ayisyen konsidere prezans BINUH kòm yon okipasyon etranje ki, depi 2004, te siprime endepandans ak souverènte Ayiti. Nou dakò. Nou vle ou, Prezidan AMLO, konsidere seryezman wòl ou ak wòl Repiblik Meksiken an nan pwolonje misyon Nasyonzini an ak kontinye represyon pèp ayisyen an.

Pandan ane yo, nou te wè ou parèt kòm youn nan vwa ki pi pwogresis nan emisfè a. Nou bat bravo pou angajman w yo pou nou tabli nouvo relasyon ki pi ekitab ant nasyon yo ak pèp Amerik yo, espesyalman kont entimidasyon ak dominasyon lwès ak nò yo. Pou rezon sa a, nou kwè ou pa ta dwe pèmèt tèt ou fè politik neokolonyal Etazini ak Lwès ann Ayiti. Paske ou sipòte otodetèminasyon pou rejyon an, tout peyi yo dwe gen dwa revandike endepandans yo, menm Ayiti. Renouvèlman manda Nasyonzini an se kont souverènte ayisyen an. Nou pa vle ou fini sou move bò listwa.

Misyon Nasyonzini an Ayiti se Okipasyon Etranjè ak refi souverènte

Kòm ou konnen siman, Nasyonzini te vin tounen yon fòs okipasyon ann Ayiti apre koudeta 2004 Etazini-Frans-Kanada te dirije kont prezidan Ayiti ki te eli demokratikman, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Apre koudeta a, Nasyonzini te pran pouvwa nan men fòs ameriken yo. Dapre Chapit VII konstitisyon Nasyonzini an, Nasyonzini te etabli Misyon Estabilizasyon Nasyonzini an Ayiti (MINUSTAH), pou okipasyon militè anba laparans tabli lapè ak sekirite. Gouvènman Pati Travayè Brezil la ki te dirije pa Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva answit te trayi pèp ayisyen an e li te febli souverènte Ayiti lè li te dakò pou dirije zèl militè misyon Nasyonzini an ann Ayiti. 

Istwa Nasyonzini ann Ayiti se yon istwa vyolans. Yon operasyon chè, plizyè milya dola, MINUSTAH te gen ant 6,000 ak 12,000 twoup militè ak lapolis estasyone an Ayiti ansanm ak plizyè milye pèsonèl sivil. Menm jan ak premye okipasyon ameriken an (1915-1934), okipasyon Nasyonzini an anba MINUSTAH te make pa britalite ak rasis anvè pèp ayisyen an. Sivil yo te atake ak asasinen brital. Sòlda Nasyonzini yo te komèt krim seksyèl. Sòlda Nasyonzini yo jete dlo egou nan rivyè ayisyen yo itilize pou bwè, sa ki te deklanche yon epidemi kolera ki te touye ant 10,000 ak 50,000 moun - e pou sa Nasyonzini poko responsab.

CORE Gwoup - yon kowalisyon entènasyonal ki te pwoklame "zanmi" Ayiti - te reyini pandan okipasyon MINUSTAH. Ki pa nwa, ki pa eli, ak anti-demokratik, objektif CORE Gwoup se sipèvize gouvènans Ayiti. Pandansetan, menm jan ak premye okipasyon an, Lèzetazini ak MINUSTAH te fòme e militarize lapolis ak fòs sekirite Ayiti yo, souvan reyabilite ak reentegre manm koken yo. Lèzetazini, nan konplisite ak MINUSTAH ak CORE Gwoup a, te tou pase sou demokrasi ayisyen an, enstale tou de neo-Duvalieris Michel Martelly ak Pati Ayisyen Tèt Kale li a (PHTK), ansanm ak pwoteje Martelly a ak siksesè, Jovenel Moïse.

Yo fè konnen okipasyon sa a te fini ofisyèlman an 2017 ak disolisyon MINUSTAH. Men Nasyonzini rete ann Ayiti anba yon nouvo akwonim: BINUH, Biwo entegre Nasyonzini ann Ayiti. BINUH te gen yon gwo wòl nan zafè politik entèn ayisyen an. Pa egzanp, tousuit apre yo te touye Moïse, reprezantan li a, Helen La Lime, te deklare ke Claude Joseph ta dwe enstale kòm lidè Ayiti. Apre sa, "Core Group" te mande pou Ariel Henry vin prezidan. E se egzakteman sa ki te pase lè yon "nouvo" gouvènman ayisyen te anonse nan dat 20 jiyè 2021, ak Henry kòm lidè. Sa a, san okenn di nan men pèp ayisyen an, san okenn pwosesis demokratik, san okenn enkyetid pou souverènte Ayiti. 

Okipasyon Nasyonzini Ogmante Vyolans ak Enstabilite

Kounye a, Ayiti gen yon premye minis ki pa eli, ki pa popilè, ki pa responsab e ki pa lejitim, ki te sipòte pa Etazini ak nasyon lwès yo. Pandan se tan, sitiyasyon sekirite Ayiti a vin deteryore konsiderableman pandan gwoup yo, ame pa elit transnasyonal ayisyen ak Levantin, kontinye atak yo sou pèp ayisyen an. Fòk nou di, nan dizwitan ke misyon Nasyon Zini te patisipe nan okipasyon Ayiti a, pèp ayisyen an sèlman fè eksperyans vyolans ak enstabilite politik. Ou dwe rekonèt okipasyon etranje peyi Dayiti kite l nan yon eta de dezòd ak vyolans. 

Pou rezon sa a, nou te tou desi nan patisipasyon gouvènman ou a nan politik migrasyon rasis gouvènman ameriken an. Pandan ke nou te alame pa istwa de move kondisyon lavi ak tretman vyolan imigran ayisyen yo nan peyi Meksik. Meksik te fè konplisite ak Etazini—kont pèp Amerik yo—lè li te aksepte peman pou militarize fwontyè nò ak sid li yo pou Etazini. Sa a te mennen nan plis kriminalize ak tretman vyolan pou tout imigran, men sitou imigran Nwa yo. Gouvènman w la te dakò tou ak politik "Rete nan Meksik" Etazini, ki vyole lwa entènasyonal. 

Somè Amerik yo 

Nou te ankouraje lè ou te mande pou reprezante jis ak rekonesans souverènte tout nasyon yo nan Somè Amerik yo 2022. Nan mwa me, Black Alliance for Peace te mande yon bòykote nan Somè a pou pwoteste kont pouvwa ak politik Etazini nan emisfè a. Moun ki nan Amerik nou yo te deklare opozisyon yo ak li, ki deklare klèman ke yon moun pa ka yon patnè ak yon ejemon an menm tan. Etazini te ekskli nasyon yo ke yo te deklare ke yo pa demokratik. Poutan, Ariel Henry te envite, menmsi yo te mete l sou pouvwa sou demann Etazini ak CORE Group, e san okenn opinyon demokratik pèp ayisyen an. 

Nan bòykote Somè Amerik yo, ou menm, Mesye Prezidan, te deklare: 

"Mwen kwè nan nesesite pou chanje politik ki te enpoze depi plizyè syèk, esklizyon an, dezi a domine, mank de respè pou souverènte peyi yo ak endepandans chak peyi."

Nou mande, Mesye Prezidan, e respè pou souverènte ak endepandans Ayiti? Eske peyi sa pa konte? Ki jan ou jistifye aksyon ou anvè Ayiti ak pèp li a, enkli imigran, ki eksprime opoze a? 

Non nan Okipasyon. Wi pou Otodetèminasyon

Nasyonzini pa respekte souverènte pèp ayisyen an. Palman ayisyen an pa janm ratifye okipasyon Nasyonzini yo. Apre plizyè misyon echwe, yon renouvèlman manda BINUH reprezante yon atak dirèk sou dwa pèp ayisyen an pou otodetèminasyon.

Nou mande pou w reflechi sou relasyon ki genyen ant nasyon nan rejyon nou an. Tout nasyon ta dwe kapab trase pwòp desten yo, pa sèlman kèk. Ou dwe konnen istwa pèp ayisyen fyè ki gen Revolisyon ki te chanje kou istwa lemonn ak èd materyèl ki te ede libere Amerik yo anba dominasyon kolonyal ak esklavaj. Malgre afwon kontinyèl sou otodetèminasyon li, pèp Ayiti a ap kontinye goumen pou liberasyon li.

Meksik ta dwe kontribye nan fen okipasyon Ayiti a, pa nan ekstansyon li. Amerik yo pa kapab lib e souveren sof si tout peyi yo lib e souveren.

 

siyen,

Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team (Ekip Ayiti/Amerik)
Caribbean Solidarity Network
U.S. Peace Council
MOLEGHAF
Family Action Network Movement (FANM)
Spirit of Mandela
KOMOKODA (Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti)
Foundation Frantz Fanon
United National Anti-War Coalition
Friends of Latin America
Alliance for Global Justice
Community Movement Builders
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Lowcountry Action Committee
Mapinduzi
Pan-African Community Action (PACA)
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice
Socialist Unity Party
Struggle La Lucha newspaper
ANTICONQUISTA
Workers Voice Socialist Movement
Latin America Solidarity Coalition of Western Massachusetts
Massachusetts Peace Action
Troika Kollective
Peace Action Wisconsin
G-REBLS
Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition
Fondasyon Mapou
Seattle Anti-War Coalition
Claudia Jones School for Political Education
Los Angeles Movement for Advancing Socialism
Party of Communists USA
Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
Luqman Nation Media
Plymouth Congregational UCC Board of Social Action
Malcolm X Center for Human Rights & Self Determination
Ujima People's Progress Party
Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
All-African People’s Revolutionary Party
#NoMore Global Movement
Ethio-American Development Council
NY NJ Hope for Ethiopia
Unión del Barrio

Photo credit: Photographer Lev Radin | Credit: Sipa USA via AP

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign & Black Alliance for Peace Center Opposition to War

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign & Black Alliance for Peace Center Opposition to War

Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign/POOR PEOPLE’S ARMY Press Release

 

For immediate release, June 13th, 2022

Contact: Cheri Honkala 215-869-4753, PPEHRCorg@gmail.com

 

As Groups Gather in Washington D.C. to Discuss Poverty, The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign and Black Alliance for Peace Say that, In Spirit of Dr. King, Opposition to War Must be at Center of the Discussion

On June 16th at 10:00am EST, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) and the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) co-sponsored the Press Conference on "Thinking Beyond Ukraine: Their War is not our War," exposing the flawed thinking in Left Leaning and Anti-Poverty movements taking the same approach to solving problems that we’ve taken for decades with little to no results. Participants included Human Rights activists and former Green Party Vice Presidential candidates Cheri Honkala and Ajamu Baraka. Watch the press conference here!

These groups are coming together in the spirit of Martin Luther King’s famous Riverside Speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence” where he took a bold, visionary, and necessary stance against the Vietnam War. This stance, widely considered radical at the time, would prove historically validated and critical to both the core philosophy of the Civil Rights and Anti-war movements of the time. The basis for this correctness was the astute observation that the United States was not only investing millions and millions of dollars to “solve” problems abroad that they had not solved at home, but additionally that there was no genuine investment, honesty or effort towards actually solving those problems stateside.

In this speech, MLK states:

“A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”

It is in this spirit that we call for a radical break with the status quo in the development of the Poor People’s Army which embraces People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHRs), the Black radical human rights approach to human liberation. PCHRs are those non-oppressive rights that reflect the highest commitment to universal human dignity and social justice that individuals and collectives define and secure for themselves through social struggle. They are grounded in the recognition that the genesis of the assaults on human dignity that are at the core of human rights violations is located in relationships of oppression and that, therefore, it is only as a result of the radical restructuring of those oppressive relations that authentic human rights can be realized.

As such, we come today in the tradition of our ancestors to claim these rights. We come in the tradition of the Harriet Tubmans and the John Browns, the Malcolm Xs and the Black Panthers. We gather not to map out a ten-point policy plan that the Democratic Party will pay lip service to, mildly and softly teasing it during an election season only to immediately betray those who put them in office. We are calling for an end to these conditions: a solution that teaches people to reclaim land, housing, food, culture, education, and a humane society for all. On August 12-14, we will be hosting a national Boot Camp near Philadelphia to put in place this plan to secure our future. Register now at: https://bit.ly/BootcampAugust2022

The Poor People’s Army is a nonviolent ARMY of poor and working people, led by poor people, fighting for our survival by any means necessary. For three decades, The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)/Poor People’s Army has been reclaiming the basic necessities of life with free food distribution and housing takeovers of abandoned properties. We try to help anyone who comes to us. We center music, arts, and culture and practice the politics of love. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) seeks to recapture and redevelop the historic Anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical black movement. Through educational activities, organizing, and movement support, organizations and individuals in the Alliance work to oppose both militarized domestic state repression and the policies of de-stabilization, subversion, and the permanent war agenda of the U.S. state globally.

–Español abajo–


La Campaña de derechos humanos económicos de los pobres/ Comunicado de prensa del EJÉRCITO DE LA GENTE POBRE

Para publicación inmediata, 13 de junio de 2022

Contacto: Cheri Honkala 215-869-4753, cherihonkalappehrc@gmail.com

 

Mientras los grupos se reúnen en Washington D.C. para discutir la pobreza, la Campaña de Derechos Humanos Económicos de los Pobres y la Alianza Negra por la Paz dicen que, en espíritu del Dr. King, la oposición a la guerra debe estar en el centro de la discusión

 El 16 de junio a las 10:00 a. m. EST, la Campaña de Derechos Humanos Económicos de los Pobres (PPEHRC, por sus siglas en inglés) y la Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP, por sus siglas en inglés) copatrocinaron la conferencia de prensa sobre "Pensar más allá de Ucrania: su guerra no es nuestra guerra" exponiendo el pensamiento defectuoso en Los movimientos de la izquierda y contra la pobreza adoptan el mismo enfoque para resolver problemas que hemos adoptado durante décadas con pocos o ningún resultado. Entre los participantes se encontraban activistas de derechos humanos y ex candidatos a vicepresidente del Partido Verde, Cheri Honkala y Ajamu Baraka. ¡Mira la conferencia de prensa aquí! (Solo esta en ingles)

Estos grupos se unen en el espíritu del famoso discurso de la Iglesia Riverside de Martin Luther King "Más allá de Vietnam: es hora de romper el silencio", donde tomó una postura audaz, visionaria y necesaria contra la guerra de Vietnam. Esta postura, ampliamente considerada radical en ese momento, resultaría históricamente validada y crítica tanto para la filosofía central de los movimientos por los derechos civiles como contra la guerra de la época. La base de esta corrección fue la astuta observación de que los Estados Unidos no solo estaba invirtiendo millones y millones de dólares para “resolver” problemas en el extranjero que no habían resuelto en casa, sino que además no había una inversión, honestidad y esfuerzo genuinos y, en realidad, resolver esos problemas en los Estados Unidos.

En este discurso, MLK afirmó:

“Hace unos años hubo un momento brillante en esa lucha. Parecía que había una verdadera promesa de esperanza para los pobres, tanto blancos como negros, a través del programa de pobreza. Hubo experimentos, esperanzas, nuevos comienzos. Luego vino la acumulación en Vietnam, y vi este programa roto y destripado, como si fuera un juguete político ocioso de una sociedad enloquecida por la guerra, y supe que los Estados Unidos nunca invertiría los fondos o las energías necesarios en la rehabilitación de sus pobres. mientras aventuras como Vietnam siguieran atrayendo hombres, habilidades y dinero como un tubo de succión destructivo demoníaco. Por lo tanto, me vi cada vez más obligado a ver la guerra como un enemigo de los pobres ya atacarla como tal.”

Es en este espíritu que llamamos a una ruptura radical con el statu quo en el desarrollo del Ejército de la Gente Pobre que adopta los Derechos Humanos Centrados en las Personas (PCHR, por sus siglas en inglés), el enfoque radical de los derechos humanos negros para la liberación humana. Los PCDH son aquellos derechos no opresivos que reflejan el más alto compromiso con la dignidad humana universal y la justicia social que los individuos y colectivos definen y aseguran para sí mismos a través de la lucha social. Se fundamentan en el supuesto de que la génesis de las agresiones a la dignidad humana que están en el centro de las violaciones de los derechos humanos se ubica en las relaciones de opresión y que, por tanto, es sólo como resultado de la reestructuración radical de esas relaciones opresivas. que se puedan realizar auténticos derechos humanos.

Como tal, venimos hoy en la tradición de nuestros antepasados a reclamar estos derechos. Venimos en la tradición de Harriet Tubman y John Brown, Malcolm X y los Black Panthers. Nos reunimos para no trazar un plan de política de 10 puntos en el que el Partido Demócrata se burlará de la boca para afuera solo de manera leve y suave durante una temporada electoral solo para traicionar de inmediato a quienes los pusieron en el cargo.

Estamos pidiendo el fin de estas condiciones: una que enseñe a la gente a recuperar la tierra, la vivienda, la alimentación, la cultura, la educación y la sociedad humana para todos. En agosto, organizaremos un campo de entrenamiento nacional para poner en marcha este plan para asegurar nuestro futuro. https://bit.ly/BootcampAugust2022

El Ejército de la Gente Pobre es un EJÉRCITO no violento de gente pobre y trabajadora, dirigido por gente pobre, que lucha por nuestra supervivencia por todos los medios necesarios. Durante 3 décadas, la Campaña de Derechos Humanos Económicos de los Pobres (PPEHRC)/Ejército de la Gente Pobre ha estado reclamando las necesidades básicas de la vida, con la distribución gratuita de alimentos y la adquisición de viviendas en propiedades abandonadas. Tratamos de ayudar a cualquiera que venga a nosotros. Centramos la música, las artes y la cultura, y practicamos la política del amor. La Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) busca recuperar y desarrollar las posiciones históricas contra la guerra, antiimperialista y pro paz del movimiento negro radical. A través de actividades educativas, organización y apoyo al movimiento, las organizaciones e individuos de la Alianza trabajan para oponerse tanto a la represión militarizada del estado nacional como a las políticas de desestabilización, subversión y la agenda de guerra permanente del estado de los EE. UU. al nivel mundial.

Statement By BAP Member Organization AFRORESISTANCE

Statement By BAP Member Organization AFRORESISTANCE

For Immediate Release

For Media Contact: 

Chelsea Bailey, Media@afroresistance.org

Español Abajo

New York, Friday, June 10th- As key issues such as elections in Colombia and mass shootings in the United States were taking place, invitations were being sent to select heads of state, while some heads of state were being snubbed by the United States to participate in the Summit of the Americas to take place in the Los Angeles California between June 7 and ending on June 11 of the current year.  Twenty-three countries were invited, while, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were not invited to participate at the hands of the Biden administration. 

Afroresitance is very aware of the lack of serious commitment of the United States government to deal with migrants and asylum seekers, neither within the United States nor outside of its borders. We understand that unless there is a real commitment on the part of the most powerful country on the American continent to protect and defend the human rights of all individuals, including but not limited to Black Women and girls, and all trans-identified peoples, the conditions that drive thousands of individuals, families, and communities to migrate outside of their country of origin will continue, and increase. 

One of the core principles of AfroResistance, a migration that honors Black peoples movement regardless of ‘status’, Afroresistance has an internationalist perspective on migration, where all migrants, including Black migrants, regardless of political, social, economic, or cultural migration realities and stories are honored and centered as members of society and therefore entitled and guarantee of all their human rights. 

It is imperative that the summit of the Americas, result in new policies and politics that will address the ongoing needs of all migrants for peace, development, and that center on their full, indivisible, and undenied human rights.

For more information https://www.afroresistance.org/ 

Para publicación inmediata

Para contacto con los medios:

Chelsea Bailey, Media@afroresistance.org

Nueva York, viernes 10 de junio- Mientras se desarrollaban temas clave como las elecciones en Colombia y los tiroteos masivos en los Estados Unidos, se enviaban invitaciones para seleccionar jefes de estado, mientras que algunos jefes de estado eran rechazados por Estados Unidos para participar en la Cumbre de las Américas a realizarse en Los Ángeles California entre el 7 y el 11 de junio del presente año. Veintitrés países fueron invitados, mientras que Cuba, Nicaragua y Venezuela no fueron invitados a participar de la mano de la administración Biden.

Afroresitance es muy consciente de la falta de compromiso serio del gobierno de los Estados Unidos para tratar con los migrantes y solicitantes de asilo, ni dentro de los Estados Unidos ni fuera de sus fronteras. Entendemos que a menos que exista un compromiso real por parte del país más poderoso del continente americano para proteger y defender los derechos humanos de todas las personas, incluidas, entre otras, las mujeres y niñas negras, y todos los pueblos identificados como trans, la Las condiciones que impulsan a miles de personas, familias y comunidades a migrar fuera de su país de origen continuarán y aumentarán.

Uno de los principios fundamentales de AfroResistance, una migración que honra el movimiento de los pueblos negros independientemente de su 'estatus', Afroresistance tiene una perspectiva internacionalista sobre la migración, donde todos los migrantes, incluidos los negros, independientemente de las realidades políticas, sociales, económicas o culturales de la migración y las historias son honradas y centradas como integrantes de la sociedad y por ende titular y garantía de todos sus derechos humanos.

Es imperativo que la cumbre de las Américas resulte en nuevas políticas y políticas que aborden las necesidades actuales de todos los migrantes por la paz, el desarrollo y que se centren en sus derechos humanos plenos, indivisibles e innegables.

Regístrese en el Grupo de Trabajo de Migración Negra de AfroResistance para recibir más información sobre la migración negra.

The Black Alliance for Peace Stands in Solidarity with The People's Alternative Political Movement

The Black Alliance for Peace Stands in Solidarity with The People's Alternative Political Movement

Black Alliance for Peace Stands in Solidarity with

The People's Alternative Political Movement 

The Africa Team of the Black Alliance for Peace issued the following statement addressing the Political Summit 2022 of the The People's Alternative Political Movement 

The Black Alliance for Peace and the U.S. Out of Africa Network express our deepest solidarity with the The People's Alternative Political Movement (TPAP-M) as you hold your 2022 Political Summit as part of a broader effort  to establish a Mass Workers Party for the Socialist Transformation of Nigeria.

The struggles of the organized working people are central to the attainment of independence, termination of military rule and the ongoing struggles to deepen democratic participation and consolidation. We have a duty as working people to be part of the struggle, and BAP identifies the Black working class as the main social force of any reconstituted Black Liberation project.

We stand with you, TPAP-M in your call to #ResistHardship as the rising level of hardship and inhumane exploitation in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general are clear indicators of the urgency for organized, coordinated and collective political intervention of the left movement and allied radical progressive social forces.

We are encouraged by TPAP-M’s efforts to restate longstanding solutions that will reinstate ownership of Nigeria to the masses and address the root of the issues, which have persisted in the country too long.

The people of Nigeria, the majority of who are in the oppressed classes, want every Nigerian to be; guaranteed security of life; food, water, electricity, decent housing, health care, education, safe transportation, and living wage employment. TPAP-M’s efforts to guarantee these needs are consistent with BAP’s work to ensure People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHRs).

We stand in full solidarity with you as you work to mobilize the working masses of Nigeria towards political empowerment, and ending economic and social repression and imperialist domination.

Imperialist Hands off Africa!

Africa unite!

No compromise! No retreat!

A Statement on Ukraine from the Black Liberation Movement

A Statement on Ukraine from the Black Liberation Movement

Dismantle NATO Now!
Rescind the $16B US Allocations to the Ukraine War!
US Imperialism is the Main Danger to Peace, Sovereignty, and Justice for Peoples all Over The World!

The ongoing crisis and war in Ukraine threatens to pull the world into a disastrous nuclear confrontation. Disinformation, lies, and propaganda from the US and other western media are aimed at confusing millions of people inside the US and around the world to view Russia as the aggressor, while hiding the US role in the evolution of this conflict. One major example of this manipulation is that western media has not been honest about the massive role that the US played in facilitating a 2014 coup in Ukraine that overthrew the country’s democratically elected president, and funneled support to neo-Nazi forces who were favorable to US/EU interests, helping them rise to power in Ukraine.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals of the Black Liberation Movement and the various mass organizations and movements fighting for justice inside the US, call on all peace loving, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities to condemn and oppose US involvement in the Ukraine and across Europe through its various corporate and political interests and its military arm, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

We, Black people living in the United States, are a people of African descent oppressed inside the United States. We have been barred from the right to housing, to food, to medicine, to clean air, healthy environments, education and livable wages. Our grandmothers make difficult decisions monthly between keeping on the lights or being able to afford insulin. As 13% of the US population, we face disproportionate levels of violent police repression and make up 40% of US prisoners. Those corporate and elite ruling class forces in the US who are making the policies to expand NATO across the 12,500 miles of Russia’s borders from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, are the same ruling elites that maintain the oppressive policies inside the

US that leave our communities in the racist economic and political peril we have suffered here for hundreds of years.

We further condemn the blatant hypocrisy of the US government as a capitalist, imperialist, patriarchal predator power that has invaded and undermined numerous countries for regime change and other schemes, in order to control the politics, wealth, and natural resources of those nations. The United States is the strongest and largest imperialist power in the world and has repeatedly invaded other nations such as Grenada (1983); Afghanistan (2001); Iraq (2003); Libya (2011); and at least 21 others since 1945. The US military arm on the African continent is known as AFRICOM, a force that breeds violence and instability in maintaining US corporate interests across Africa.

In these imperialist wars, it is the Black, Brown, Indigenous, working and poor families who suffer the losses of dislocation, the deaths of loved ones, and other forms of agony. Black people in this country have fought in every US war while our families and communities continue to suffer the ravages of hatred, discrimination, poverty, disease, and death. In the Ukraine conflict, racism is showing its ugly face in the denial of immigration rights to African and other non-white people’s seeking to escape the degradation and violence of this conflict, like all others living in Ukraine.

We join with Black and Brown people in other countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America who uphold the right of all nations to sovereignty and security, including Russia, who has historically been invaded by the forces of imperialism and fascism across its borders several times in the 20th century. The Russian people lost millions of lives to defeat fascism during WWII, fighting Hitler’s Nazi invasion of the USSR in 1941. This history of invasions of Russia also lies at the root of the Russian concerns about its security and the Ukraine/NATO expansion scheme that has provoked this war.

We call upon every community and organization fighting for justice and peace to adopt and sign this statement calling for the Dismantling of NATO, an end to US Support of the War in Ukraine, and to Rescind the Billions of Dollars in military aid to Ukraine. Those military funds sent to Ukraine should be reallocated to the needs of people inside the US for universal healthcare, universal childcare, affordable housing, education, liquidation of all student loan debt, minimum incomes and other human needs.

Signed by:

A-APRP Condemns Invasion of PAIGC Central Committee Meeting by Para-Military

A-APRP Condemns Invasion of PAIGC Central Committee Meeting by Para-Military

All eyes on Guinea Bissau!

The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party stands in uncompromising support of our sister Party; the PAIGC

We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the flagrant denial of the PAIGC’s right to conduct its affairs and pursue the People’s mandate in open fair and transparent elections. We call on all progressive, peace loving and justice minded People around the world to denounce the terrorist actions taking place.

The party of Amilcar Cabral; the African Party of Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) is once again under attack by the illegitimate anti-constitutional government of self-proclaimed president Embalo Sissoco installed in 2019.

Yesterday, March 18th, 2022, a para-military force invaded the PAIGC National Headquarters firing tear gas (from zionist Israel) into meeting room where the PAIGC Central Committee was meeting, to approve final documents for its 10th Party Congress. The entirety of the Central Committee was forced out of the building resulting in injuries.

Some PAIGC Members were beaten; some C.C. Members were injured, while others’ phones were confiscated.

The Regional Secretary of the Amilcar Cabral African Youth (JAAC) was kidnapped by a personal security staff of Embalo Sissoco, taken to an isolated area and beaten.

Dr. Sana Conte, a lawyer activist, was kidnapped by another personal security staff of Embalo Sissoco who was in a Ford Ranger with license plate number 63-18 CG, which belongs to the Chief of Security named Tcherninho. Dr. Sana Conte has not been seen since..

There are constant threats to the physical integrity of PAIGC President, Engineer Domingos Simões Pereira.

The objective is to prevent the PAIGC from holding its mandated Congress so that they cannot contest legislative elections.

These are the same tactics that were used to disrupt the 9th PAIGC Congress in 2018. After the paramilitary invasion and beatings of PAIGC Members, the Congress was held and the PAIGC won the Legislative Elections of March 2019. Less than one year later, Sissoco Embalo self-proclaimed himself as president in a hotel and carried out a coup that dislodged the PAIGC led Government in an attempt to install a dictatorship.

It logically follows that arrests, beatings, threats and intimidation will continue.

The All- African People’s Revolutionary Party stands in uncompromising support of our sister Party; the PAIGC. We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this flagrant denial of PAIGC the right to conduct its affairs and pursue the People’s mandate in open fair and transparent elections. We call on all progressive, peace loving and justice minded people around the world to denounce the , Sissoco Embalo self-proclaimed dictatorship.

All eyes on Guinea Bissau!

All support for the PAIGC.

Forward to One unified Socialist Africa!

(Banner Photo: Headquarters of African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde in capital and port city Bissau. / Wikiwand)

Event: Political Prisoners and Colonized Peoples: The Solidarity Imperative

Event: Political Prisoners and Colonized Peoples: The Solidarity Imperative

Register here.

Join us in solidarity as we examine Human Rights in an international context as it relates to political prisoners and colonized peoples.

About this event

Despite decades of calls for an end to all colonialism, many peoples on every continent still struggle for sovereignty and liberation. From well-recognized occupied territories like Western Sahara and Palestine, to contested lands like Puerto Rico, which officially are understood to be “non-self-governing,” freedom movements have shifted strategies over the past five years, with open dialogues about nonviolent resistance, armed struggle, and new methods appropriate to 21st century dynamics. Through it all, one thing seems clear: solidarity for the political prisoners of the rising civil resistance movements needs to become a stronger focus and much better coordinated.

This webinar, co-sponsored by a coalition of several groups, will look directly at this key organizing challenge, with updates from front line organizers and analysis from long-time activists. It will then conclude with an open exchange on potential areas for future work together.

This webinar has been organized as a collaboration of the new Occupied Peoples Forum, which brings together representatives of eight still-colonized peoples, Solidarity 2020 and Beyond, Waging Nonviolence, Resistance Studies Initiative, the International Peace Research Initiative, and the U.S.-based, Black-led, Spirit of Mandela coalition.

It is an outgrowth of the Spirit of Mandela's successful October 2021 International Tribunal on U.S. Human Rights Abuses Against Black, Brown, and Indigenous Peoples. The Tribunal examined questions of human rights in an international context and found the U.S. guilty of five counts of genocide. This online seminar continues those efforts, providing an overview of resistance campaigns focused on solidarity work with political prisoners and their freedom campaigns.

Featuring:

Sahar Francis, Palestinian Executive Director, Addemeer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

Luis Rosa Perez, Puerto Rican former political prisoner; human rights activist with Casa Corretjer

Enguia Mohamed, President, NOVA Western Sahara civil resistance association

Jalil Muntaqim, Black Panther former political prisoner; Spirit of Mandela Coordinating Committee member

Moderated by:

Rosa Moiwend, West Papuan organizer and peace educator

Matt Meyer, Secretary General, International Peace Research Association; Spirit of Mandela Coordinating Committee member

Sponsored by:

Spirit of Mandela Coalition, Occupied Peoples Forum, Solidarity 2020 and BeyondWaging NonviolenceResistance Studies Initiative, and the International Peace Research Association

Register here.

Democracy Scores Another Victory Over the U.S. in Honduras

Democracy Scores Another Victory Over the U.S. in Honduras

Democracy Scores Another Victory Over the U.S. in Honduras

Black Alliance for Peace Statement on Honduran Elections

The anti-colonial, pro-human rights members of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) welcome the resounding victory of the people of Honduras. “Again, the people of our region have registered their unwavering commitment to authentic democracy and the right to national self-determination with the victory of President-elect Xiomara Castro in Honduras,” states Jemima Pierre, coordinator of BAP’s Haiti/Americas committee. 

The people of our region and the world remember the criminal assault on democracy that took place in Honduras in 2009 as one of the first acts of the newly elected Obama/Biden Administration. But with the election of Xiomara Castro, it is clear the coup stalled but did not reverse the momentum in Honduras for national independence, despite the death and systematic repression unleased on the population by the U.S. backed fascist regime.  

“Just over the last two months, from Nicaragua to Venezuela and now Honduras, it is clear that the dogs of war and repression represented by the gringos from the North are unable to squash the spirit of the peoples of our region for People(s)-Centered Human Rights and national liberation. When we free Haiti and remove the illegal and immoral blockade against Cuba, the momentum for finally ejecting the U.S. and its antiquated fantasies of continued domination of our region and peoples will be unstoppable,” according to Ajamu Baraka, Black Alliance for Peace National Organizer. 

BAP salutes the people of Honduras for this incredible victory and pledges to fight with them to protect their hard-won victory, a victory that is really a triumph for all of us. 

No compromise, no retreat!

"The Democratic Party wants war with Russia, the Trump administration wants war with China, so it's up to the people to demand and struggle for peace against both pro-imperialist war parties."

- Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer

(Banner Photo: Supporters of Free Party presidential candidate Xiomara Castro cheer before she speaks after general elections, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Nov. 28, 2021. / Associated Press)