U.S. War on Africa Rages on with Somalia in the Crosshairs

U.S. War on Africa Rages on with Somalia in the Crosshairs

February 10, 2025 — The new Trump administration has wasted no time continuing the U.S. war on Africa. Just one month into his second term, the U.S. has launched at least six airstrikes in Somalia’s Puntland region. While AFRICOM and the Somali government claim these strikes are “authorized” and therefore legal under international law, this so-called authorization is nothing more than a hallmark of neo-colonial governance. Comprador regimes installed and maintained by Western imperialism do not exercise genuine sovereignty but instead serve as facilitators of foreign domination.

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) Africa Team and the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) unequivocally condemn this renewed aggression. These strikes, backed by the Puntland regional government, have nothing to do with “security.” They serve U.S. neo-colonial domination, enforcing foreign control and keeping Somalia divided.

Under Trump’s first term, the U.S. launched over 200 airstrikes in Somalia—more than Bush, Obama, and Biden combined—fueling instability and strengthening al-Shabaab. The 2020 troop withdrawal was a reorganization of imperial strategy, ensuring AFRICOM continued operations through drone warfare and proxies.

For decades, the U.S. has worked to keep Somalia in crisis. It has exploited divisions between Somalia and Somaliland, manipulated conflicts in the Horn, and propped up corrupt regimes. The Somali government, like all comprador regimes, trades sovereignty for military aid, including its recent $600,000 contract with BGR Group, a Washington lobbying firm.

BAP previously warned that Trump’s second term would bring a more aggressive U.S. posture in Africa. As BAP Africa Team Co-Coordinator Netfa Freeman stated:

“The Trump administration enters office at a time when China and Russia have significantly deepened their strategic partnerships across the continent and with the continent no longer in the same position of weakness as before. The rise of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has shown the world that African nations can reject Western domination and military occupation. These factors mean that the U.S. will likely pursue a much more aggressive military strategy in Africa, being that all they know is drone warfare, proxy militias, and strategic partnerships with neo-colonial regimes to maintain its grip.” 

This attack is part of a broader U.S. offensive against the growing movement in Africa for self-determination. Trump has already moved against South Africa, cutting aid under the racist pretext of defending white Afrikaners while punishing the country for challenging U.S. and Israeli settler-colonialism. The same empire that protects apartheid landowners in South Africa continues to wage war on Somalia and militarize the continent. Meanwhile, AFRICOM’s role in destabilizing Africa extends beyond Somalia. In Libya, U.S. military forces are deepening their partnership with the comprador regime in Tripoli, strengthening military ties under the tired pretext of “security cooperation.” AFRICOM’s continued presence in Libya, where U.S. and NATO forces devastated a prosperous country in 2011, ensures that Libya remains fractured, occupied by competing factions, and is a staging ground for imperialist military operations across North Africa and the Sahel.

The U.S. and its allies have turned Somalia into a perpetual warzone, a playground for private mercenaries, and a military testing ground for AFRICOM’s latest weapons and drone technology. They have done so under the guise of “fighting terrorism,” when in reality, they have created the very conditions that allow groups like al-Shabaab to thrive. BAP rejects the false choice between U.S. military occupation and endless war. The Somali people have the right to build their own future, without Washington’s bombs, without AFRICOM’s presence, and without the interference of Gulf States acting as Western proxies.

Shutdown AFRICOM!

U.S. Out of Africa!

No Compromise! No Retreat!

Banner image: photo of Trump pointing up superimposed on photo of military aircraft and pilot with jihadist rebels in background; courtesy @middayindia.

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Trump’s Declaration of War on Palestine

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Trump’s Declaration of War on Palestine 

Signals a New Epoch of Western Settler Colonialism

February 5, 2025 — Last night, President Trump named what many of us have known for some time – the intentions of the United States to complete the State of Israel’s final solution by announcing his plans to resettle Gazans and assume U.S. control and ownership of the Gaza Strip, Palestine. 

In signaling the U.S. imperial initiative, Trump has also revealed that the U.S. cannot be seen as a trusted partner or leader in pursuing global stability and peace. Indeed, the cognitive dissonance and moral infirmity associated with the U.S. colonial, imperialist mindset, driven by the sickness of white “supremacy” ideology, is now irrefutably elucidated. As Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) founder and Coordinating Committee member Ajamu Baraka noted, “The Russians and Chinese must learn the lesson that the peoples and nations of the global South learned decades ago, and that is that the U.S. is a lunatic state that can't be reasoned with.” He continued, “The Russians should have learned this with Ukraine. But if the Chinese believe that they can keep their heads down and allow the U.S. to destroy peoples and nations, it is only a matter of time before  the barbarians will be at their gates." 

This is nothing more than a continuation of the U.S.’s own settler colonial experiment that includes the extermination, ethnic cleansing, and displacement of Indigenous peoples from their sovereign homelands that commenced in the 15th century and continues today. And the idea that even the most reactionary Arab governments would accept such a non sequitur proposal continues the same amateur, inefficacious, and wanton approach to foreign policy we observed under Biden, Blinken, Austin, and other Democrat party agents who were complicit in funding and arming Israel’s genocidal war machine 15 months before Trump assumed control of the White House. 

To this end, BAP admonishes those who seek to use this as an opportunity to evoke the idea that conditions would be better if the U.S. government were currently controlled by Harris and the Democrat Party. For such a silly and sophomoric proclamation ignores the fact that it was a Democrat-controlled government that vetoed numerous United Nations ceasefire resolutions, allocated billions of dollars to support genocide and ethnic cleansing, and enjoined the conclusions of the  International Criminal Court (ICC) when it rightfully asserted that the State of Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. It should not be at all surprising that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the first convicted war criminal to be invited to, and enjoy the pomp and circumstance of, the Oval Office.

For those who believe that the Democrats would be any better if they emerged victorious from the 2024 elections, BAP would ask, has there been any indignation or semblance of disapproval from leaders of the Democrat Party, including, but not limited to, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi or its Black Misleadership Class representatives Jim Clyburn or House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries? Have any Democrats called for an immediate arms embargo and economic sanctions against the State of Israel? Have any Democrats pledged to block the use of the military to carry out Trump’s feckless and illegal pogrom? Has the new leadership of the Democratic National Committee (DNC)  declared it will no longer accept donations from or allow for the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to influence its primaries? 

It should be noted that Trump’s Gaza Grab Declaration would require the use of U.S. military force, which would be a violation of International Law, the Geneva Convention, and the basic tenets of human rights. To this end, BAP calls on the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus, to immediately denounce previous Democrat Party stances on Gaza and to do all within their constitutional authority to proactively block the use of any U.S. military forces to carry out Trump’s plans.  Furthermore, as using the military to colonize and occupy  Gaza would be an illegal act and in itself a war crime, BAP reminds all U.S. military personnel of their duty to reject any and all unlawful orders pursuant to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. 

The world is awakened, the Palestinian resistance and pursuit of their liberation is more ubiquitous and unwavering than ever, and global solidarity with Palestine remains inexorable. 

U.S.-led Imperialism Is Directly Responsible for Turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo

U.S.-led Imperialism Is Directly Responsible for Turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team (BAP) and U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) stands in unwavering solidarity with the Congolese People as they endure yet another chapter of violence, exploitation, and masked imperialist aggression in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ongoing conflict, fueled by Rwanda’s role as an imperialist foot soldier, is not merely a regional dispute but a manifestation of global capitalism’s insatiable desire for Africa’s resources. As the transnational capitalist class fight for dominance in the global clean energy, artificial intelligence, and technology markets, the Congo has been and stands to remain the battleground as a cornerstone of systemic plunder for over a century.

Rwanda, backed by Western powers such as the United States, the European Union (EU), Canada, Israel, etc, has consistently acted as a destabilizing force in the region, providing material support to proxy militias like the M23 to undermine Congolese sovereignty and facilitate the extraction of resources. Much like the sub-imperialist relationship between the United Arab Emirates and Sudan, Rwanda has no significant mineral reserves of its own yet has become one of the world’s leading exporters of critical minerals like coltan. The recent escalation in Goma, where Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) and M23 have seized strategic areas, is a direct result of this imperialist agenda.

In stark and revolting contrast to what is professed by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to serve as the “Conscience of the Congress,” by “uplifting the voices of the voiceless and fighting for the most vulnerable… ” there is always a deafening silence concerning the role of U.S. imperialism in the Congo and in Africa at large. In fact CBC members have more so served as lap dogs for U.S. imperialism and willing servants for its policies of intervention.

The responsibility of those outside of the DRC is to heed the acts of the People reflecting the unheard, to unconditionally support their path toward self-determination and right to defend their land and sovereignty. This is the only way to sustainable peace in the Congo.

The conflict in the DRC is not an isolated event but a direct consequence of the global capitalist system in crisis. The so-called “Green Corridor” initiative, promoted by President Felix Tshisekedi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, is a stark example of how imperialist powers and their local compradors, seek to legitimize their pillaging under the guise of development. This initiative, funded primarily by the United States and EU, aims to secure access to the Congo’s cobalt, copper, and lithium — resources essential for the global transition to renewable energy and digital technologies. Yet, this so-called “development” comes at the direct expense of the Congolese People, who continue to suffer from violence, displacement, and poverty. 

The Congolese people, however, continue to resist valiantly. The recent attacks on the embassies of Belgium, France, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United States, chanting “down with imperialism” and widespread protests across the DRC, from Goma to Kinshasa, make clear the frustration of the Congolese with a government that has failed to protect them, and a global system that exploits them. The uprising reflects a growing consciousness among the Congolese masses, who are demanding accountability, liberation, and an end to decades of suffering. The Black Alliance for Peace recognizes these protests as part of a broader struggle across the African continent. As Che Guevara said, “all free people of the world be prepared to avenge the crime of the Congo.”

We understand that the liberation of the Congo is inseparable from the liberation of Africa as a whole. The Congo’s land, energy, and resources have fueled the wealth of imperialist powers for generations, while its people have been subjected to unimaginable violence and exploitation. The current crisis is a stark reminder that the struggle for African sovereignty is a struggle against the global capitalist system. We must reject the false narratives that frame this conflict as a regional or ethnic issue and instead recognize it as a fight against imperialism and for self-determination. 

The Black Alliance for Peace calls on all progressive forces, both across the African continent and around the world, to stand in solidarity with the Congolese People. Demand an immediate end to Rwanda’s aggression and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the DRC. We call for Congo’s resources to be under the democratic control of its People. We call on all anti-imperialist forces across the world to expose the puppeteer role of the U.S.-EU-NATO Axis of Domination in fueling this crisis and to support the Congolese People’s right to life.

The struggle of the Congolese People is our struggle. Their victory is our victory. Let us unite in solidarity to end the centuries-long suffering in the Congo and to build a world free from imperialism, capitalism, and exploitation. The Congo is not for sale—it belongs to its People.

Free the Congo! 

Patrice Lumumba Lives!

Unite Africa under Socialism!

No Compromise!

No Retreat!

Banner photo: Security forces clash with protesters attacking the French embassy in Kinshasa, DR Congo, on January 28, 2025. (Courtesy Reuters)

The Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes the Release of Leonard Peltier and Demands Unrestricted Release of all U.S. Political Prisoners

The Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes the Release of Leonard Peltier and Demands Unrestricted Release of all U.S. Political Prisoners

The immoral life sentence of American Indian Movement freedom fighter, political prisoner and prisoner of war, Leonard Peltier was commuted by the U.S. President Joe Biden, only moments before Biden’s term in office ended. Now 80 years old, Peltier languished for over 50 years in prison after being unjustly convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975 during a terror raid of the Pine Ridge Reservation by agents of the U.S. government.

Biden’s clemency order for Peltier was a vulgar, narcissistic attempt to fabricate a benevolent legacy for himself. Falling far short of an exoneration, the Biden administration insinuated the act was one of compassion for a decidedly “guilty” FBI agent killer. The ailing elder Peltier won’t be released until February 18th, and will still have to remain confined to house arrest for the rest of his life under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons that can rescind his release if they decide he has violated his parole. At least he will be surrounded and cared for by loved ones. 

While the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) welcomes the long overdue release of Leonard Peltier, we hold that he should never have been imprisoned and that his imprisonment reflects the ongoing institutional expression of settler-colonialism that defines the U.S. Even though all evidence in the case of Peltier points to his innocence, BAP’s commitment to an authentic process of decolonization in every sense of that term supports the right of American Indian, First Nation people to defend themselves and resist their colonialist domination by any means necessary.

Neither Biden nor the U.S. government deserves credit or gratitude for commuting Peltier's sentence. All credit belongs to the activists, international human rights leaders, and legal advocates led by the Indigenous people who fought for decades for Leonard Peltier’s release. Peltier’s case is but one in a long and decadent history of U.S. political imprisonment and repression, with a present record that includes the contemporary cases of the Uhuru 3, the nearly five dozen “Stop Cop City” activists indicted on RICO charges, and activists targeted in the Free Palestine movement.

BAP holds the U.S. setter state in contempt for continuing to hold political prisoners and we remain “committed to working against all forms of state and domestic repression, including the issues of political prisoners and prisoners of war in the United States.”

No Compromise!

No Retreat!

The Free Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee is raising funds for expenses related to retaining independent medical experts, accommodations, travel, materials, and other expenditures related to Leonard's medical care. Please contribute what you can. You can also donate via Cash App to: $PeltierOfficialComm

The Black Alliance for Peace stands in Solidarity with the Peoples and Nations of “Our Americas” Against the U.S. Gangster State

The Black Alliance for Peace stands in Solidarity with the Peoples and Nations of “Our Americas” Against the U.S. Gangster State

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) stands in solidarity with the peoples and nations of “Our Americas” against U.S gangster actions – especially the new regime’s public bullying tactics towards sovereign states. The colonial/imperialist, white supremacists that make policy for both capitalist parties in the U.S. are united in their support for U.S. aggression, destabilization and militarism in our “Americas.” This latest U.S. regime intends to  continue its violation of the sovereignty of nations and peoples, from the ongoing illegal and immoral embargo against Cuba, the neocolonial military intervention and undemocratic transition process in Haiti, and subversion in Venezuela to the latest outrage in Trump’s attempt to bully the leadership and people of Colombia.

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is clear. The U.S. settler colonial state is the enemy of peace and human rights. Its actions in our region are responsible for the massive migration from the Global South. The parasitic exploitation  by U.S. capitalists of  the peoples and nations of our region have created the conditions that have forced millions to desperately attempt to get to the North just to live. Like asylum seekers, migrants also have human rights that are codified in law, and respectful relations between states with equal sovereignty should be the basis for communications. But historically, U.S. administrations have rejected the idea that the U.S. is equal to any other state. “Make America Great Again" and liberal claims of U.S. “exceptionalism,” are two sides of the same white supremacist coin. That is why the doctrine of “full spectrum dominance” is proudly embraced by the duopoly and foreign policy community, and reminds us of the guiding bipartisan strategic objective of U.S. foreign policies no matter who resides in the “white house.”

This is why peoples and states in our region must fight against U.S. imperialism through a collective collective “people(s)-centered” human rights. BAP supports the efforts to protect national sovereignty and the dignity and democratic  rights of the people. We are encouraged by the call by President of Honduras Xiomara Castro to convene an urgent meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) this week to discuss migration, the environment, and regional unity. Building anti-imperialist power based on true solidarity is critical, particularly to combat the expansive militarization (e.g. U.S. military bases and U.S. Southern Command exercises) and political-economic coercion of the region (e.g. sanctions, currency manipulation, regime change)  – the bipartisan agenda from Washington.

The anti-colonial struggle is real. As President Petro declared “Colombia no longer looks to the North, it looks to the world.” That must be the call for peoples and nations of the Global South. We understand that there can be no guarantee of dignity, human rights, sovereignty –and no “peace”– under the U.S./EU/NATO axis of domination. This is why we assert that the hemisphere must become a Zone of Peace, freed from the structures and interests that generate war and state violence: colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism and the manifold tactics of U.S. imperialism.  

History has already issued its declaration that “for the world to live, the power of the U.S. and Europe must be broken.” This is our task to fulfill.

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*En español 

La Alianza Negra por la Paz se solidariza con los pueblos y naciones de “Nuestra América” contra el Estado mafioso de EE.UU. 

La Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) se solidariza con los pueblos y naciones de “Nuestra América” contra las acciones mafiosas de EE.UU., especialmente las tácticas de intimidación pública del nuevo régimen hacia los estados soberanos. Los supremacistas blancos coloniales/imperialistas que hacen política para ambos partidos capitalistas en EE.UU. están unidos en su apoyo a la agresión, desestabilización y militarismo de EE.UU. en “Nuestra América.” Este actual régimen estadounidense pretende continuar su violación de la soberanía de las naciones y los pueblos, desde el embargo ilegal e inmoral contra Cuba, la intervención militar neocolonial y el proceso de transición antidemocrático en Haití, y la subversión en Venezuela hasta el último escándalo en el intento de Trump de intimidar al liderazgo y al pueblo de Colombia. 

La Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) es clara: el Estado colonial estadounidense es enemigo de la paz y los derechos humanos. Sus acciones en nuestra región son responsables de la migración masiva desde el Sur Global. La explotación parasitaria de los pueblos y las naciones de nuestra región por parte de los capitalistas estadounidenses ha creado las condiciones que han obligado a millones de personas a intentar desesperadamente llegar al Norte solo para vivir. Al igual que los solicitantes de asilo, los migrantes también tienen derechos humanos codificados en la ley, y las relaciones respetuosas entre estados con igual soberanía deberían ser la base de las comunicaciones. Pero históricamente, las administraciones estadounidenses han rechazado la idea de que Estados Unidos sea igual a cualquier otro estado. “Make America Great Again” y las afirmaciones liberales del “excepcionalismo” estadounidense son dos caras de la misma moneda supremacista blanca. Es por eso que la doctrina de la “dominación de espectro completo” es adoptada con orgullo por el duopolio y la comunidad de política exterior, y nos recuerda el objetivo estratégico bipartidista rector de las políticas exteriores estadounidenses sin importar quién resida en la “Casa Blanca”.

Por eso, los pueblos y los estados de nuestra región deben luchar contra el imperialismo estadounidense a través de una lucha colectiva de derechos humanos “centrados en los pueblos”. BAP apoya los esfuerzos para proteger la soberanía nacional, la dignidad y los derechos democráticos de los pueblos. Nos alienta el llamado de la Presidenta de Honduras, Xiomara Castro, a convocar una reunión urgente de la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC) esta semana para discutir la migración, el medio ambiente y la unidad regional. Construir un poder anti imperialista basado en una verdadera solidaridad es fundamental, en particular para combatir la militarización expansiva (por ejemplo, las bases militares estadounidenses y los ejercicios del Comando Sur de EE.UU.) y la coerción político-económica de la región (por ejemplo, las sanciones, la manipulación de la moneda, el cambio de régimen) — la agenda bipartidista de Washington.

La lucha anticolonial es real. Como declaró el Presidente Petro, “Colombia ya no mira al Norte, mira al mundo”. Ese debe ser el llamado a los pueblos y las naciones del Sur Global. Entendemos que no puede haber garantía de dignidad, derechos humanos, soberanía –y tampoco “paz”– bajo el eje de dominación de EE.UU./UE/OTAN. Por eso afirmamos que el hemisferio debe convertirse en una Zona de Paz, libre de las estructuras e intereses que generan la guerra y la violencia estatal: el colonialismo, el patriarcado, el capitalismo y las múltiples tácticas del imperialismo estadounidense.

La historia ya ha declarado que “para que el mundo pueda vivir, el poder de los Estados Unidos y Europa debe ser destruido”. Esa es nuestra tarea.

Banner image: A 1901 political cartoon depicts an Uncle Sam rooster with European roosters in the Monroe Doctrine coop (left) and South American countries running around free as smaller roosters. Courtesy FOTOSEARCH/GETTY IMAGES

The Facts about CARICOM and Haiti by The Black Alliance for Peace Haiti-Americas Team

“CARICOM’s neocolonial function can be seen most clearly through its interactions with Haiti. Haiti did not join CARICOM until 2002, but almost from its origins in 1973, CARICOM was engaged with Haiti. While many of the CARICOM’s original member states resisted Haiti’s membership, citing political and linguistic differences, others saw Haiti, due to its geographic proximity and large population, as an ideal export market for locally-produced goods.”

In the interest of advancing political education around the history and current role of CARICOM and its neocolonial function with regards to Haiti, the Haiti/Americas Team of the Black Alliance for Peace has published this comprehensive FACT SHEET on CARICOM and Haiti: Integration or Imperialism?

Los Angeles Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect

Los Angeles Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect 

The incendiary cataclysms in Los Angeles, California remind us that the root cause of the climate crisis exacerbating the fires spreading throughout that city and surrounding areas is fossil fuel production emblematic of runaway capitalism fueled by white “supremacy” ideology, patriarchy, and colonization. And while it’s easy to focus solely on the fires, it’s important to note that the associated smoke will be the main culprit in the loss of life due to environmental racism that has assaulted the public health of Black, Brown, Indigenous and all poor and working class people in Los Angeles and throughout the country. As revealed during the height of the Covid pandemic, Black and Indigenous peoples suffered a higher morbidity rate due to decades of exposure to poisoned air and the intentional siting of pollutive industries and operations in our communities from Los Angeles, to the Bronx, and Cancer Alley in Louisiana. These communities remain at high risk because what’s happening in Los Angeles, won’t stay in Los Angeles - the smoke generated from these fires will traverse our communities as it travels eastward, and exacerbates existing public health emergencies that are consistently overlooked and ignored by lawmakers representing both the corporate Democrat and Republican political parties and their wealthy acolytes. 

To this end, while we sympathize with those who have lost their homes in affluent communities like the Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and the Hollywood Hills, we empathize with communities that will suffer long term public health impacts, including, but not limited to, respiratory and other illnesses due to years of being treated as energy and economic sacrifice zones. This pattern was most recently exemplified by the environmental travesty of New York City’s congestion pricing program, which will divert high volumes of traffic to poor, Black and Brown communities in the Bronx and Staten Island, thereby sacrificing them to accommodate affluent communities in Manhattan.  

Will President Biden, the incoming Trump administration,  and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency whose racism, classism and contempt for the poor is well documented, consider environmental justice communities across the country being choked out by smoke they had no hand in creating while billions of dollars are doled out to primarily accommodate wealthy people? It should be noted that many of these wealthy people  benefit from and advocate for the capitalist system that fuels and maintains these crises.  These are the kinds of questions BAP must perpetually ask as a principled and radical Black formation; and that we must ask as a people who understand confronting and dismantling the climate crisis requires confronting and dismantling racialized and classist capitalism - hence why we refer to climate change as the racial/class capitalocene. 

Finally, it is not lost upon BAP that, very recently, many of the people enlisted to fight California wildfires were incarcerated people, some of whose prison sentences were extended by soon to be former Vice President, Kamala Harris when she served as Attorney General of California. This was an effort to generate cheap labor from lives she and far too many others deem expendable and disposable. There is an axiomatic nexus between how these inmates/political prisoners are treated and how Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor communities are treated in the context of the climate crisis. This nexus extends to the treatment of Palestinian people who continue to be dehumanized and exterminated while also being displaced from their homelands due to an inferno of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and militarism. Such is the pathology of settler colonialism, which too many still refuse to connect with environmental degradation and the climate crisis in the United States.

We must and will continue making these requisite connections and intersections as we develop a multi racial/multi ethnic poor and working class response to this latest episode of the racial/class capitalocene’s atlas of destruction. 

No Compromise! 

No Retreat!

Banner photo: Homes on fire and palm trees blowing in wind during LA fire, courtesy bbc.com/weather.

The Unrelenting Violence Against Black Youth in Latin America: a Focus on Ecuador

The Unrelenting Violence Against Black Youth in Latin America: a Focus on Ecuador

By Janvieve Williams Comrie, January 8, 2025

The murder of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys is another tragic example of the long history of racism in Ecuador and Latin America. The utter disregard for the lives of Black youth and the refusal to seek justice for the deplorable acts committed against them reveals the true nature of those states. Building a region free of imperialist forces that will work to bring peace and stability is how the masses will rid themselves of this unrelenting violence.

The December 2024 murders of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys in Guayaquil’s Las Malvinas neighborhood have laid bare the entrenched racism and neglect faced by Black communities in Ecuador. and Josué Arroyo, of 15 and 14 years of age, Nehemías Arboleda, 15, and Steven Medina 11, disappeared on December 8th, their dismembered bodies discovered days later near a military base. This heinous act has drawn national and international condemnation, with demands for justice and accountability growing louder.

The government’s response—a state of emergency and curfew in Guayaquil and other areas until at least March 3, 2025—has been criticized for its misplaced focus. Rather than addressing the systemic poverty and racism that make (Afro-Ecuadorian) communities vulnerable, the state has doubled down on militarized crackdowns. This heavy-handed approach criminalizes Afro-descendant communities, further perpetuating systemic violence and oppression cycles of violence and mistrust…

Banner photo: Demonstrators in Niteroi, Río de Janeiro, at a Black Lives Matter event to protest against racism in Brazil | courtesy Fernando Souza/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News

BAP Condemns Ecuadorian Authorities for the Disappearance of Four Black Children

The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Ecuadorian Authorities for the Disappearance of Four Black Children Between the Ages of 11 and 15

This Case Highlights the Complete Absence of Human Rights for Afro Ecuadorians

For Immediate Release

Media Contact

press@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

December 30, 2024 - The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP)  is concerned and outraged that four Afro-Ecuadorian children, between the ages of 11 and 15, can go missing for almost two weeks after coming into contact with members of the armed forces without any concerns or official statements provided  by government officials. The children (the “Guayaquil Four”) are from the Las Malvinas neighborhood, a largely Black and impoverished community, in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil.

BAP supports the demands of AfroEcuadorian and human rights organizations for the safe return of these boys and a transparent investigation. Ivana Delgado Aguilar, spokesperson for Movimiento Afrodescendiente Nacional Ecuatoriano / National AfroDescendent Ecuadorian Movement (MANE), says this incident of the Guayaquil Four, demonstrates an institutionalized criminal structure. “There are many missing persons and this must come to light. This (case) shows that those who fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, drug addiction and institutionalized violence have always been society, neighborhoods and families, not the State, which is only a social instrument but is now organized against its people,” stated Aguilar.  

BAP is concerned that the fundamental human rights of Afro-Ecuadorians are being consistently and systematically violated, as the Ecuadoran state engages in its  “war on drugs” campaign, declaring “internal armed conflict” as it battles criminal gangs in the country. Moreover, the Ecuadorian government has been all too willing to fight its war on drugs in Afro-Ecuadorian territories and communities, imposing horrific state repression and violence, as it surrenders its sovereignty to US military (and geopolitical) interests.

Under the guise of the “War on Drugs” and one of SOUTHCOM’s stated commander’s priorities of combating transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), President Noboa unleashed  Plan Fenix to counter armed violence in the country. This has meant the militarization of society and strengthening the repressive apparatus of the state in a way that aligns with US foreign policy objectives. With the recent concession of the Galapagos Island to the US military by the Noboa government, Ecuadorian sovereignty is being sold along with Afro-Ecuadorian human rights. 

Despite the Noboa government having forcefully come out against this apparent kidnapping recently, initially he gave cover to the military until criticisms emerged from Black organizations and other members of civil society on this case and other cases of violence by the police and military authorities. 

In fact, according to Ajamu Baraka, director of BAP’s new North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human rights: 

“This case is indicative of a long history of abuse suffered by the people of Ecuador but particularly by Afro-Ecuadorians. The Ecuadorian state has rarely recognized let alone protected the fundamental human rights of Afro-Ecuadorians. But this case represents a line in the sand for the Black peoples of that nation. BAP’s North-South People(s)-Centered Human Rights project is working with a process in the country that recognizes that the only way that Afro-Ecuadorian human rights will be protected is when the people are organized and able to protect their rights -themselves.”

The case of the Guayaquil Four provides a clear example for the necessity of expelling the forces of the US/EU/NATO Axis of Domination and the need for demilitarization, not just in Ecuador but in the region as a whole. The failed Monroe Doctrine has been used for the past 2 centuries to keep “the Americas for the Americans” to violently maintain western hegemony. For BAP, only organized communities can guarantee communal and self defense and only a collectively constructed Zone of Peace, not just in Ecuador, but Nuestra América can successfully expel the nefarious forces that deny and violate human rights and militarize society at the behest of its US/Western leaders.

———- Español ———-

La Alianza Negra por la Paz condena a las autoridades ecuatorianas por la desaparición de cuatro niños negros de entre 11 y 15 años.

Este caso pone de manifiesto la completa ausencia de derechos humanos para los afroecuatorianos

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30 de diciembre de 2024 - La Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) expresa su preocupación e indignación por la desaparición de cuatro niños afroecuatorianos, de entre 11 y 15 años, que llevan casi dos semanas desaparecidos tras haber tenido contacto con miembros de las fuerzas armadas, sin que las autoridades gubernamentales hayan emitido declaraciones oficiales o mostrado preocupación alguna. Los niños (conocidos como los “Cuatro de Guayaquil”) son del barrio Las Malvinas, una comunidad mayoritariamente negra y empobrecida en Guayaquil, la ciudad más grande de Ecuador.

BAP respalda las demandas de las organizaciones afroecuatorianas y de derechos humanos por el regreso seguro de estos niños y una investigación transparente. Ivana Delgado Aguilar, portavoz del Movimiento Afrodescendiente Nacional Ecuatoriano (MANE), afirma que este incidente de los Cuatro de Guayaquil demuestra una estructura criminal institucionalizada. “Son muchos los desaparecidos que tienen que salir a la luz. Esto demuestra que quienes luchan contra la criminalidad organizada, el narcotráfico, la drogadicción y la violencia institucionalizada siempre ha sido la sociedad, los barrios, las familias, no el estado que únicamente es un instrumento social pero que hoy se encuentra organizado contra su pueblo,” declaró Aguilar.

BAP expresa su preocupación porque los derechos humanos fundamentales de los afroecuatorianos están siendo violados de manera consistente y sistemática, mientras el estado ecuatoriano lleva a cabo su campaña de "guerra contra las drogas", declarando un "conflicto armado interno" en su lucha contra las bandas criminales en el país. Además, el gobierno ecuatoriano ha demostrado estar demasiado dispuesto a librar su guerra contra las drogas en territorios y comunidades afroecuatorianas, imponiendo una horrenda represión y violencia estatal, al tiempo que entrega su soberanía a los intereses militares (y geopolíticos) de Estados Unidos.

Bajo el pretexto de la “Guerra contra las Drogas” y una de las prioridades declaradas por el comandante del Comando Sur de combatir las organizaciones criminales transnacionales (TCOs), el presidente Noboa lanzó el Plan Fénix para contrarrestar la violencia armada en el país. Esto ha significado la militarización de la sociedad y el fortalecimiento del aparato represivo del estado, de una manera alineada con los objetivos de la política exterior de Estados Unidos. Con la reciente concesión de las Islas Galápagos al ejército estadounidense por parte del gobierno de Noboa, la soberanía ecuatoriana está siendo vendida junto con los derechos humanos de los afroecuatorianos.

A pesar de que el gobierno de Noboa se pronunció enérgicamente contra este aparente secuestro recientemente, inicialmente brindó respaldo a los militares hasta que surgieron críticas de organizaciones negras y otros sectores de la sociedad civil sobre este caso y otros casos de violencia por parte de las autoridades policiales y militares.

De hecho, según Ajamu Baraka, director del nuevo Proyecto Norte-Sur para los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos de BAP:

"Este caso es indicativo de una larga historia de abusos sufridos por el pueblo de Ecuador, pero especialmente por los afroecuatorianos. El estado ecuatoriano rara vez ha reconocido, y mucho menos protegido, los derechos humanos fundamentales de los afroecuatorianos. Sin embargo, este caso representa una línea divisoria para los pueblos negros de esa nación. El Proyecto Norte-Sur para los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos de BAP está trabajando con un proceso en el país que reconoce que la única manera en que los derechos humanos de los afroecuatorianos serán protegidos es cuando el pueblo esté organizado y sea capaz de proteger sus derechos por sí mismo."

El caso de los Cuatro de Guayaquil ofrece un claro ejemplo de la necesidad de expulsar las fuerzas del eje de dominación EE.UU./UE/OTAN y de avanzar hacia la desmilitarización, no solo en Ecuador, sino en toda la región. La fracasada Doctrina Monroe ha sido utilizada durante los últimos dos siglos para mantener “las Américas para los americanos” y así preservar violentamente la hegemonía occidental. Para BAP, solo las comunidades organizadas pueden garantizar la defensa comunitaria y propia, y solo una Zona de Paz construida colectivamente, no solo en Ecuador, sino en Nuestra América, puede expulsar con éxito las fuerzas nefastas que niegan y violan los derechos humanos y militarizan la sociedad al servicio de los líderes estadounidenses y occidentales.

###

Banner photo: Holding up flier about Disappear Ecuador Children (courtesy abcnews.go.com)

The Importance of Race, Class, and Territorial Sovereignty in Panama Amid Trump’s Canal Threats

Analysis: The Importance of Race, Class, and Territorial Sovereignty in Panama Amid Trump’s Canal Threats

by Chevy Solís Acevedo y Janvieve Williams Comrie

Donald Trump’s recent threats to reclaim control of the Panama Canal represent an attack on Panamanian sovereignty and reflect imperialist attitudes that have historically marginalized Black communities. These statements, made in the context of a complex political landscape in Panama, require analysis through the lenses of race, class, and territorial sovereignty. From the labor of Caribbean workers who built the Canal to the current struggles for equitable resource distribution, understanding these intersections is essential to addressing U.S. intervention threats and the policies of Panama’s right-wing administration.,,

Banner photo: Man holding sign at “demostraciones contra la mineria extractivista” in Panama. 2023 (courtesy afroresistance.org).

The Biden Administration Fails to Win Imprisonment of the Uhuru 3

The Biden Administration Fails to Win Imprisonment of the Uhuru 3

Members of the Uhuru Movement, Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess, and Jesse Nevel – the “Uhuru 3” – were sentenced to three years probation and community service after being convicted in September 2024 of supposedly conspiring with the Russian government to interfere in U.S. elections. The Black Alliance for Peace recognizes that this sentence is confirmation that the charges against Uhuru members by the Biden Administration Justice Department were baseless. While any sentence handed down from imperialist courts for actions that are supposed to be legally protected are, in themselves, illegitimate, the refusal of the judge to incarcerate the Uhuru 3 is a victory in the fight against a repressive US regime, regardless of which wing of the finance capital bird leads it.

“The attack on the African People's Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement was intended as an attack against the Black liberation movement in a pathetic move to intimidate into silence and non-resistance the most consistent anti-imperialist force in the United States of America - the revolutionary African working class,” stated Ajamu Baraka, Chair of the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace. “What the state did not understand was that, no matter what the outcome would have been in the sentencing of the Uhuru 3, the resistance efforts on the part of our movement were going to intensify in 2025. Our movement cannot be intimidated by state actions.” 

The government’s weak case was punctuated by its own witness admitting, under oath, that no evidence was found that proved the three defendants were agents of the Russian government. But the overwhelming volume of that meaningless “evidence” also confused the jury into finding the three guilty of conspiring to do something that there was no evidence that they did. This is not logical. But logic is never the goal of the government when it comes to silencing dissent, which was certainly the goal of the Biden Administration in this case.

It is interesting to note that it was a Trump-appointed judge who exposed the glaring contradiction in the indictment and conviction of the Uhuru 3. During the sentencing, he declared that the group’s actions were protected political speech that caused no harm, and must be allowed – “or it gets chilled.” The irony of a Trump appointee defending free speech in a trial meant to imprison Africans for exercising it should be lost on no one.

The U.S. left also played a role in this two-year ordeal by acquiescing to the threat of Democrat-led government repression with little resistance and deafening silence. Whether due to fear of being next, because of their belief in the Democrat-created lie of Russiagate, or because of their own internal Russophobia, or worse, anti-communism (even though Russia is not a communist country any longer), the lack of support given to the Uhuru 3 reminds U.S.-based African anti-imperialists that we are largely on our own. We understand, therefore, that our greatest strength is in international solidarity with like-minded and focused peoples around the world.

BAP reiterates its unwavering support for the Uhuru 3 and congratulates them on this outcome. We also recognize that this is but one small victory in a larger, ongoing battle against imperialist repression that we must continue to fight. The 60 Stop Cop City protesters facing RICO charges in Atlanta are next on the firing line of the same repressive Democrat-led government. We should not merely hope for a sympathetic judge, Trump-appointed or otherwise, to stand between the people exercising our rights and the state trying to deny them and criminalize us.

BAP declares that we are at war. We must fight against this system regardless of who is in power.  But we are not fighting alone. We fight with the entire anti-imperialist world already engaged in the struggle against a U.S. regime that represses us all.

No Compromise, No Retreat

Banner photo: Uhuru 3 and supporter outside of the Sam Gibbons U.S. District Courthouse in Tampa after their sentencing hearings. (Courtesy, Douglas R. Clifford | Tampa Bay Times)

Syria: The Return to the Scene of Obama’s Crime

Syria: The Return to the Scene of Obama’s Crime 

The U.S. Must Stop Supporting Right-Wing Forces to Advance Its’ Geopolitical Agenda

Around the world, many hoped that the Russia-negotiated agreement in 2020 between the Syrian, government and the coterie of right-wing Jihadist forces, common criminals and other forces against the government of President Bashar Al-Assad, would finally end the nightmare of war, displacement, torture, and mindless destruction suffered by the Syrian people – victims of  U.S. plans to overthrow all the major nations in the Middle-East that might challenge continued U.S. domination. However, just a few days ago, like cancer, the disease of U.S. imperialism has suddenly metastasized. The Black Alliance for Peace argues that current U.S. imperialist actions in Syria need to be placed in a historical context. It is important to remember that the vicious subversion of Syria, which began in earnest in 2011, was only one of the two criminal assaults that year on nations perceived to be obstacles to U.S. regional hegemony. The other under U.S. assault was  Libya. In Libya, however, the Western-orchestrated assault resulted in not only the overthrow of the government but the country’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, being raped and murdered by the right-wing Jihadist friends of the U.S.

Linking the U.S. imperialist assault on Syria to that of Libya is important because it informs how the few authentic anti-imperialist forces that still exist in the U.S. understand and articulate opposition to the moves being made by U.S. and Western imperialism in their desperate attempts to avoid the inevitable end of white world dominance. Our positionality in relationship to the Pan-European white supremacist colonial/capitalist patriarchy compels us to remind our friends and sometimes allies, that they cannot pretend to be in solidarity with Palestine and then cheer on the overthrow of one of the few states in the world that has never turned its back on Palestinian people, no matter what one might think of the internal politics of the Syrian state.

Such concerns about the nature of the Syrian state became a cover for defending U.S. imperialism and were expressed by dishonest actors or those who were politically naive. Now that the U.S.-backed jihadists have emerged triumphant hope for authentic self-determination for the Syrian people has once again been delayed. 

Trump’s absurd claim that the U.S. does not have anything to do with Syria is only a reflection of why he will never gain full control over the state and non-state apparatus that is directing U.S. foreign policy. The notion that whoever is sitting in the white house represents the final and only power of the U.S. state is dangerously naive. Just recall when Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated a ceasefire with Russia in Deir Ezzor, Syria only to have it ignored by his generals and CIA.   

Reigniting the war in Syria will prolong the tragedy experienced by the people of Syria since 2011. The Black Alliance for Peace will continue to monitor the situation and will not hesitate to reveal the facts as we find them.

Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes Amnesty International’s Report on Genocide in Gaza

Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes Amnesty International’s Report on Genocide in Gaza

For Immediate Release

Media Contact

press@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

December 5, 2024 — The Amnesty International report unambiguously recognizing the barbaric assault on the occupied and oppressed people of Palestine and Gaza specifically as a genocide is a welcome departure from many of the tentative and unprincipled allusions to genocide without calling it genocide issued by a number of other human rights organizations and United Nations bodies, including the International Criminal Court.

According to Ajamu Baraka, director of the Black Alliance for Peace’s forthcoming “North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights, “The deliberate, systematic degradation and dehumanization of Palestinians resulting in the physical destruction of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children have all occurred right before the eyes of the world. As we watched the wholesale obliteration of their cities, refugee camps, hospitals, civilian infrastructure, cultural and religious sites, food storage facilities and schools, the starvation policy, blockage of medical supplies, murdering doctors and medical workers, torture chambers where prisoners are raped and tortured to death, the Western world not only turned away from the horrific suffering of Palestinians but rationalized and cheered it on. That is why we say that the racist crimes of the fascists in Israel are also the crimes of the “collective West,” who fled to protect the fundamental human rights of the Palestinian people,” 

The Amnesty International report states that the government of Israel “imposed conditions of life in Gaza that created a deadly mixture of malnutrition, hunger and diseases, and exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death.” These actions by the Israeli regime correspond precisely with three of the definitions of genocide reflected in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; “a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

However, something significant about the Amnesty report is that it concludes that the actions by the Israeli authorities did not merely “appear to be genocidal” or “be perceived to be corresponding to genocide,” but declares definitively that there was “genocidal intent.”

“Palestinians are human and have human rights, but the vaulted “responsibility to protect” asserted by the liberal Western human rights industry and Western states was not executed to protect Palestinians. Why? The Black Alliance will say what the report and others will not say. The genocide being carried out by Israel and the United States is supported because the Palestinians have been racialized as non-white, and, therefore, “killable.” This crime is the crime of the century and makes all who did not actively oppose it, rationalized it, or voted for it, morally complicit” says Mr. Baraka.

The Black Alliance for Peace “North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights will launch on December 10, 2024. 

Banner photo: Woman standing amidst rubble (courtesy Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Face of the White People's House May Have Changed but the War on the Oppressed Working Class Hasn't

No Matter Who Sits in the White Peoples’ House the War Being Waged by the U.S. Colonial/Capitalist Class Against the Black Colonized Working Class and All Oppressed Peoples and Nations Will Continue

“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories...” (Amilcar Cabral)

It was under the Democrats and the first “Black” president that the Department of Defense 1033 program that militarizes local police forces was expanded by 2,400%; the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) expanded by 1,900%; Libya, the most prosperous African and Pan African nation was attacked and destroyed; the war on Yemen began; the Occupy Wall Street Movement was smashed; the FBI created the “Black Identity Extremist” label; the banks were bailed out from the economic collapse that they created, but not the working class; Black people lost more wealth  than was lost at the end of Reconstruction in 1870s; and, despite police killings across the country, including Mike Brown in Ferguson, the Obama administration only brought Federal charges against one killer-cop.  Yet, with the return of Trump, opportunists in our communities and beyond are telling us that the real culprits in our oppression and the targets for opposition are Trump and republicans. 

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) rejects this kind of ahistorical opportunism.

We are clear. The anti-democratic duopoly is made up of representatives of the capitalist class and provides cover for what is, in reality, the dictatorship of capital. In this, the duopoly reveals the class nature of the state. This dictatorship, the true enemy of the people, is the target of our agitation and organizing.

Focusing attention on the Trumpian wing of the capitalist class as the primary or principal contradiction facing the people in the U.S. or in the world, obscures the reality that the dominant wing of capital, finance capital, along with the U.S. based transnational corporations, have captured and are operating through both parties. However, it is the democratic party wing of the dictatorship of capital that has championed what is popularly referred to as neoliberalism. Neoliberalism, first given coherence under Ronald Reagan, eventually migrated to the democratic party under Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council, whose “third way politics” aligned with both neoliberals and neoconservatives (neocons). Trumpism is the particular (national) manifestation of the global crisis of neoliberal capitalism. The republican party’s capture of the executive and all branches of government will not resolve the structural contradictions of neoliberal capital. What we can expect, then, is the strengthening of the repressive state apparatus and more targeted repression. To be clear, this process would have continued under a Harris administration because Harris promised to maintain the same trajectory of state repression in the name of capital. Because of the bipartisan jettisoning of liberal democratic and human rights in favor of the capitalist order, it does not matter which individual is sitting in the white peoples’ house. Therefore, the correct approach for opposition forces is one that grounds the people’s understanding of the objective structural contradictions of the capitalist order and that builds their capacity to struggle against that order  – regardless of which wing of the duopoly represents it. Focusing on only one part of the duopoly is akin to focusing on only one faction of the capitalist class.

Despite any rhetoric to the contrary, BAP expects Trump will govern as a neoliberal. That is why certain elements of the ruling class turned to him again.  Continued austerity, especially at the state and local levels, will persist, as well as privatization of public assets, tax breaks for the capitalist class, the suppression and repression of labor, fiscal and monetary policies that prop-up capitalist profits and undermine human rights and, of course, the targeted use of military power to advance the interests of the capitalist dictatorship. We believe, however, that Trump will make as his main mission the primary concern of the neoliberal elite:  smashing the movement toward de-dollarization.

We cannot afford to have any illusions or harbor any sentimentality about the nature of this system. As we organize in political spaces controlled by Black democrats, it would be suicidal if we did not understand the role these neocolonial puppets play – primarily against any organized opposition – in the war that capital is waging against the people. Under Biden-Harris, we saw  police, judicial, and media suppression of mobilizations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the student intifada, the Uhuru 3, African Stream media, and many others. And it is no coincidence that so-called “cop cities” are being constructed across the country in those urban areas being managed by Black democrat party functionaries or, what Black Agenda Report refers to as the “Black Misleadership Class.”  

This corrupted Black petit-bourgeois professional/managerial class, positioned in government, corporate and non-profit sectors, provides the buffer and role models for individual material advancement at the expense of the Black working class.

And while we are dealing with cop cities, we also understand what is coming with the mass deportations of non-white migrants and the violent law and order rhetoric that is already emanating from the Trumpian forces. But let us not forget that, under the Biden-Harris regime, mass deportations rose by 250 percent, of which Harris campaigned on being “tough” on the border. Anti-immigrant rhetoric is also bipartisan.

Like all people, we want to live decent, prosperous lives in peace and in harmony with all humanity and nature. But we are going to have to fight for peace. And for that struggle BAP is guided by the principles of the Black radical peace tradition that states clearly: 

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement by popular struggle and self-defense of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament and proliferation, unjust war, and subversion through the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.

That is the task and the responsibility that we take on. We are not afraid of any individual or oppressive system. We gladly take on this fight with the certainty that one day we will defeat the Pan European white supremacist colonial/capitalist patriarchy that is the enemy of collective humanity. 

The struggles and sacrifices being made by the Palestinian peoples to defend their dignity and popular sovereignty is the example we embrace. This is why we say that, no matter the circumstances, no matter the challenge, no matter the intensity of the repression, we are building on the sacrifices of our people and guided by revolutionary principles. Our call will always be:

No Compromise, No Retreat! 

Coordinating Committee, Black Alliance for Peace

Banner photo: split image of U.S. Presidents Joe Biden, Barak Obama, Donald Trump, and Ronald Reagan, courtesy Fox News.

MOLEGHAF: UPDATE ON ARMED ATTACKS IN Port-au-Prince

MOLEGHAF: UPDATE ON ARMED ATTACKS IN Port-au-Prince

For Immediate Release

Media Contact

communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

OCTOBER 22ND, 2024 – On October 20th, 2024, the National Movement for Liberty and Equality of Haitians for Fraternity (Mouvement National pour la Liberté et L’égalité des Haïtiens pour la Fraternité, MOLEGHAF), a member organization of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), issued a statement on the increasing violence perpetrated by the paramilitary group “Viv Ansanm” (or “Live Together”) in Solino, Fò Nasyonal, Nazon, Kriswa and other nearby popular neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. 

MOLEGHAF asserts that this escalation in paramilitary violence is rooted in the neocolonial Haitian state’s collaboration with the United States and other colonial powers, all working to maintain their criminal political agenda and keep Haiti under occupation: 

The sellout Haitian bourgeoisie, at the service of U.S. imperialism, controls our country. This is Full Spectrum Dominance. The ruling class seeks to break the back of all forms of Haitian resistance. By burning our neighborhoods down, they exterminate our very ability to resist. While the United Nations is allegedly sanctioning and embargoing weapons and bullets, the murderous group “LIVE TOGETHER” magically has access to hundreds of thousands of U.S. weapons. 

MOLEGHAF stresses that “US and Western imperialism” have targeted their neighborhoods since “at least our national uprising in 2021.” The attacks on their communities continue “even though hundreds of Kenyan troops now occupy us”. As the Haitian elite uses paramilitaries to crush popular Haitian resistance, MOLEGHAF describes the deteriorating situation:

None of us are free to leave our homes. We don’t know which way to go. The bloodthirsty death squads kill the poor and unfortunate inside their shacks.They burn through homes and memories. We, the population of Solino, have resisted this barbarism for 1 year and 7 months. Stand with us, We need help! The neocolonial Haitian state lays the basis of these massacres. We cannot continue in this situation.Solidarity is our only hope. 

The Black Alliance for Peace calls on the masses, especially those within the heart of the empire, to stand in solidarity with MOLEGHAF. We reiterate that if there is no peace, justice, and popular sovereignty for the Haitian masses, there can be no Zone of Peace in the Americas. We support MOLEGHAF’s efforts to provide the correct, radical analysis of its current predicament: that the ruling classes in Haiti, under the supervision of Western imperialists, “are seeking to break the back of the popular social movements.” We say NO to US-sponsored violence and repression in Haiti and YES to self-determination and freedom!!

Until the last rock is thrown

Until the last poem is written

Until the last voudou is sung

MOLEGHAF will resist alongside the heroic Haitian people!

Support MOLEGHAF’s fight for democracy in Haiti.
Donate to our people-to-people fundraiser here: ttps://www.gofundme.com/f/support-moleghaf-peoples-democracy-in-haiti

MOLEGHAF: ACTUALIZACIÓN DE LOS ATAQUES ARMADOS EN PUERTO PRÍNCIPE

Para publicación inmediata
Contacto con los medios de comunicación
communications@blackallianceforpeace.com
(202) 643-1136

22 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024 - El 17 de octubre de 2024, el Movimiento Nacional por la Libertad y la Igualdad de los Haitianos por la Fraternidad (Mouvement National pour la Liberté et L'égalité des Haïtiens pour la Fraternité, MOLEGHAF), organización miembro de la Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP), ha emitido un comunicado sobre la creciente violencia perpetrada por el grupo paramilitar “Viv Ansanm” (o “Vivir Juntos”) en Solino, Fò Nasyonal, Nazon, Kriswa y otros barrios populares cercanos de Puerto Príncipe. 

MOLEGHAF afirma que esta escalada de violencia paramilitar tiene sus raíces en la colaboración del estado neocolonial haitiano con los Estados Unidos y otras potencias coloniales, todos trabajando para mantener su agenda política criminal y mantener a Haití bajo ocupación: 

La burguesía haitiana vendida, al servicio del imperialismo estadounidense, controla nuestro país. Es la dominación de espectro completo. La clase dominante busca quebrar la espalda de toda forma de resistencia haitiana. Al quemar nuestros barrios, exterminan nuestra capacidad de resistencia. Mientras las Naciones Unidas supuestamente sancionan y embargan armas y balas, el grupo asesino “VIVIR JUNTOS” mágicamente tiene acceso a cientos de miles de armas estadounidenses. 

MOLEGHAF subraya que «el imperialismo estadounidense y occidental» han atacado sus barrios desde «al menos nuestro levantamiento nacional en 2021». Los ataques a sus comunidades continúan «a pesar de que cientos de tropas kenianas nos ocupan ahora». Mientras la élite haitiana utiliza a los paramilitares para aplastar la resistencia popular haitiana, MOLEGHAF describe el deterioro de la situación:

Ninguno de nosotros podemos salir de nuestros hogares. No sabemos qué camino tomar.                                      Los sanguinarios escuadrones de la muerte matan a los pobres y desafortunados dentro de                                  sus chozas. Queman hogares y recuerdos. Nosotros, la población de Solino, hemos resistido a esta                barbarie durante 1 año y 7 meses. Apoyenos, ¡necesitamos ayuda! El estado neocolonial haitiano                    sienta las bases de estas masacres. No podemos continuar en esta situación. La solidaridad es                      nuestra única esperanza. 

La Alianza Negra por la Paz llama a las masas, especialmente a todos ubicados dentro del corazón del imperio, a solidarizarse con MOLEGHAF. Reiteramos que si no hay paz, justicia y soberanía popular para las masas haitianas, no puede existir una “Zona de Paz” en las Américas. Apoyamos los esfuerzos de MOLEGHAF para proporcionar el análisis correcto y radical de su situación actual: que las clases dominantes en Haití, bajo la supervisión de los imperialistas occidentales, «están tratando de romper la espalda de los movimientos sociales populares.» Decimos NO a la violencia y la represión patrocinadas por EEUU en Haití y ¡SÍ a la autodeterminación y la libertad!

Hasta que se lance la última piedra
Hasta que se escriba el último poema
Hasta que se cante el último voudou
¡MOLEGHAF resistirá junto al heroico pueblo haitiano!

Apoya la lucha de MOLEGHAF por la democracia en Haití.

Haz un donativo a nuestra recaudación de fondos pueblo a pueblo aquí: ttps://www.gofundme.com/f/support-moleghaf-peoples-democracy-in-haiti

We Must Not Surrender to Totalitarianism

Resistance to Oppression is a Human Right

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) recognizes that we are in a moment of increased and increasingly dangerous political repression. Peoples’ resistance to oppressive, militaristic, and genocidal policies enacted by the U.S. national security apparatus are once again being met with persecution, marginalization, violence, and even lawfare. The latest example being the sanctioning of Samidoun, an organization advocating on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, as an operation supporting a group that the U.S. state designated as a “terrorist” organization. 

BAP is not interested in debating the merits of these charges because the weight of evidence on state actions suggests that the state bears the responsibility to prove that it is not engaged in another crude effort to smash all opposition to zionist settler colonial fascism. Having lost the narrative on its support for the zionist apartheid state and bogged down in another militaristic adventure in Ukraine, we see an almost desperate attempt by the U.S. political elite (and its Western minions) to crush dissent. It is using a variety of tools: federal and local police, the propaganda apparatus in the form of the corporate media, and the legal system.

Just in the last year, this infrastructure of repression has been weaponized against independent media such as African Stream, which was deplatformed from Meta, Google, and TikTok after U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claimed, without evidence, that the site is controlled by Russia. Radio Sputnik was also forced to end its programming, and the U.S. FBI convicted the “Uhuru 3” – Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess & Jesse Nevil – on conspiracy charges. Meanwhile, the violent crackdown of pro-Palestine/anti-genocide student protests across college campuses continues. 

The punishment of those who openly oppose U.S. government policies, particularly in opposition to U.S. support of zionist occupation and genocide, is in full swing as the state and its foreign state agents, like AIPAC and the ADL, move to designate organizations, entities, or individuals that support Palestinian resistance as “terrorists” or supporters of “terrorism.” The objective of this repression is not just to silence political opposition, but to criminalize it – totalitarianism in practice.  

We in the Black Alliance for Peace fully understand the dangerous times we are in. Yet, we remain unyieldingly committed to our principles, to People(s)-Centered Human Rights, to people’s liberation struggles, and to the right of all individuals and people to resist colonialism, dictatorship, global imperialist warmongering, and all forms of oppression. For BAP, “No Compromise, No Retreat!” is more than a slogan. Ultimately, it is our response to the deepening repression; and it is an affirmation of the ongoing struggle that must be waged in order to finally defeat the dark forces of oppression and build a new world.

Black Alliance for Peace Denounces the Renewal of the U.S.-Kenya Mission to Haiti // La Alianza Negra por la Paz denuncia la renovación de la misión de EE.UU. y Kenia en Haití

The Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti Needs to End

• OCTOBER 14, 2024— The Haiti/Americas Team of the Black Alliance for Peace strongly denounces the UN Security Council’s vote to extend the U.S. funded, Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in Haiti. We assert that any U.S./UN-led armed intervention in Haiti is not only unjustifiable but also unlawful. We stand with the Haitian people and civil society groups who have consistently opposed foreign armed intervention, arguing that Haiti’s issues stem from ongoing and long-standing interference by the U.S., the UN, and the Core Group. 

On Monday, September 30th, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending for one year the authorization for the MSS mission to Haiti, which claims to help quell rampant gang violence. Yet, the mission will only be the latest in a line of failed interventions aimed at denying the popular sovereignty of the Haitian people. Prior to this vote, members of the Black Alliance for Peace’s Haiti/Americas Team delivered letters to the permanent UN Missions and Embassies of several countries represented on the UN Security Council, asking them to support the Haitian masses and oppose ongoing U.S.-orchestrated armed intervention. A public version of this letter appears here. While our letters were unsuccessful, we will continue to mobilize against this expanding intervention, which lacks legitimacy: the MSS was authorized under an illegitimate U.S.-installed Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, and deployed through the nine-member “Presidential Council” and Prime Minister, neither of which has any legal status or legitimacy in Haiti.

Though the Biden administration has halted its efforts to convert the MSS into an official United Nations Peacekeeping operation, we understand that a full, long-term foreign military occupation of Haiti is the eventual goal of the U.S. and its neocolonial proxies. We warn that the U.S. aims to use Haiti as a staging ground for a permanent military base in the region to, as articulated in its foreign policy documents, secure “U.S. national security and interests” and manage rival powers, presumably Russia and China.

In a time of global upheaval, marked by a live-streamed genocide in Gaza and violent clashes between cartels and police in Mexico, it is perplexing that the U.S., France, and Canada continue to call for the foreign occupation of Haiti — a country that, while facing internal conflicts, does not threaten regional or global security. We once again call on the international community to respect Haitian sovereignty and support the Haitian masses in their ongoing struggle against the relentless occupation by foreign powers. Allowing continuous U.S. and Western control over Haiti’s political apparatus not only threatens to extinguish the nation’s hard-won sovereignty, but also weakens the sovereignty and self-determination of every other nation in the Caribbean, and Central and South America. There can be no “Zone of Peace” in the Americas if there is no peace and freedom for the people of Haiti.

U.S. out of Haiti!

Kenya out of Haiti!

No to Another Occupation!

Free Haiti!

La Misión Multinacional de Apoyo a la Seguridad (MSS) en Haití debe terminar

14 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024- El Equipo Haití/Américas de la Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) denuncia enérgicamente el voto del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU para prorrogar la misión Multinacional de Apoyo a la Seguridad (MSS) en Haití, financiada por Estados Unidos y dirigida por Kenia. Afirmamos que cualquier intervención armada dirigida por Estados Unidos o la ONU en Haití no sólo es injustificable, sino también ilegal. Estamos con el pueblo haitiano y los grupos de la sociedad civil que se han opuesto sistemáticamente a la intervención armada extranjera, argumentando que los problemas de Haití se derivan de la interferencia continua y de largo plazo de EE.UU., la ONU y el “Core Group”. 

El lunes 30 de septiembre, el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU adoptó por unanimidad una resolución que prorroga por un año la autorización de la misión de la MSS en Haití, que pretende ayudar a sofocar la violencia desenfrenada de las bandas. Sin embargo, la misión sólo será la última de una serie de intervenciones fallidas destinadas a negar la soberanía popular del pueblo haitiano. Antes de esta votación, los miembros del Equipo Haití/Américas de la Alianza Negra por la Paz entregaron cartas a las misiones permanentes de la ONU y las embajadas de varios países representados en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, pidiéndoles que apoyaran a las masas haitianas y se opusieran a la actual intervención armada orquestada por Estados Unidos. Una versión pública de esta carta aparece aquí. Aunque nuestras cartas no tuvieron éxito contra la votación, seguiremos movilizándonos contra esta intervención en expansión, que carece de legitimidad: el MSS fue autorizado bajo un Primer Ministro ilegítimo instalado por Estados Unidos, Ariel Henry, y desplegado a través del “Consejo Presidencial” de nueve miembros y el Primer Ministro, ninguno de los cuales tiene estatus legal o legitimidad en Haití.

Aunque la administración Biden ha detenido sus esfuerzos para convertir el MMS en una operación oficial de mantenimiento de la paz de las Naciones Unidas, entendemos que una ocupación militar extranjera completa y a largo plazo de Haití es el objetivo final de EE.UU. y sus apoderados neocoloniales. Advertimos que EE.UU. pretende utilizar Haití como punto de partida para una base militar permanente en la región para, como se articula en sus documentos de política exterior, garantizar «la seguridad nacional y los intereses de EE.UU.» y controlar a las potencias rivales, presumiblemente Rusia y China.

En una época de agitación mundial, marcada por un genocidio retransmitido en directo en Gaza y violentos enfrentamientos entre cárteles y la policía en México, resulta desconcertante que Estados Unidos, Francia y Canadá sigan pidiendo la ocupación extranjera de Haití, un país que, aunque se enfrenta a conflictos internos, no amenaza la seguridad regional ni mundial. Una vez más, hacemos un llamado a la comunidad internacional para que respete la soberanía haitiana y apoye a las masas haitianas en su lucha constante contra la implacable ocupación por potencias extranjeras. Permitir el control continuo de Estados Unidos y el Occidente sobre el aparato político de Haití no sólo amenaza con extinguir la soberanía de la nación que tanto ha costado conseguir, sino que también debilita la soberanía y la autodeterminación de todas las demás naciones del Caribe y de América Central y del Sur. No puede haber una «Zona de Paz» en las Américas si no hay paz y libertad para el pueblo de Haití.

¡EE.UU. fuera de Haití!

¡Kenia fuera de Haití!

¡No a otra ocupación!

¡Que viva Haití libre!

Rechazamos la política de injerencia y agresión contra Venezuela y Honduras / We Reject the Policy of Interference and Aggression Against Venezuela & Honduras

La Campaña Nuestra América una Zona de Paz, espacio integrado por diversas organizaciones y movimientos sociales de América, rechazamos las acciones de agresión e injerencismo por parte del imperialismo estadounidense contra el pueblo de Venezuela y Honduras, durante los últimos días.

El abultado expediente de acciones violatorias del derecho internacional, del respeto a la soberanía de los pueblos y de intromisión en los asuntos internos por parte de EE.UU, ha marcado la historia de este país, y la forma en la que ha pretendido imponer su hegemonía  y dominio global y con particular atención en América Latina y el Caribe, cuyo territorio ha considerado como su patio trasero.

Luego de las elecciones del 28 de Julio en Venezuela, el imperialismo ha abierto un capítulo más en la larga lista de agresiones contra el pueblo venezolano, que ha incluido desde golpes de Estado, promoción de planes desestabilizadores y violencia interna, acciones terroristas, incursión de fuerzas mercenarias en el país, intentos de magnicidio, sanciones y bloqueos, incluyendo hasta amenazas de intervención militar.

Desde la campaña Nuestra América una Zona de Paz, queremos expresar nuestro rechazo a las declaraciones del gobierno de EE.UU, de la Unión Europea y de algunos países de América Latina, y  quienes se han alineado a los intereses de recomposición de la dominación imperialista en América Latina y el Caribe, quienes pretenden desconocer la soberanía y la voluntad popular en Venezuela. 

Condenamos de manera contundente la imposición de nuevas sanciones contra el pueblo de Venezuela, así como el robo del avión con bandera venezolana, que se encontraba en República Dominicana, todo esto es una muestra más de la conducta recurrente del gobierno de EE.UU de pretender rendir por hambre al pueblo de Venezuela, violando las más elementales normas del derecho internacional.

Igualmente alertamos sobre los posibles planes de intervención militar contra Venezuela, y que han sido solicitados por sectores aliados al imperialismo y quienes pretenden utilizar al comando sur cómo brazo ejecutor de la política de dominación imperialista hacia los diferentes países en el continente, en particular con los pueblos que han levantado la bandera de la resistencia y lucha por su liberación.

Cómo parte de la estrategia de dinamitar los procesos de integración y unidad regional, el imperialismo estadounidense también ha arremetido contra Honduras y su presidenta, quien ejerce hoy la presidencia pro-tempore de la CELAC, las presiones e intentos de desestabilización y crear las condiciones para un golpe de Estado en el país, similar al golpe ejecutado por EE.UU en el 2009, planificado y ejecutado desde la base militar estadounidense  "Soto Cano", son una clara representación de que el imperialismo no está dispuesto a permitir que nuestra región consolide los caminos de construcción hacia una paz con justicia social, y un destino común de liberación y mejores condiciones de vida de los pueblos en esta región.

Nuestros movimientos y organizaciones seguiremos trabajando en materializar la proclama de la CELAC en el año 2014 en La Habana, hacer de América Latina y el Caribe una zona de Paz, libre de bases militares, armas nucleares y que permita la construcción de un mejor futuro para nuestros pueblos.

The Zone of Peace Campaign, a formation of various organizations and social movements across Our Americas, rejects the acts of aggression and interference carried out by U.S. imperialism against the people of Venezuela and Honduras in recent weeks.

The extensive record of violations of international law, disregard for the sovereignty of nations, and interference in internal affairs by the U.S. has shaped the history of this country and its efforts to impose its global hegemony and dominance, particularly over Latin America and the Caribbean, which it has considered its backyard.

Following the elections on July 28 in Venezuela, imperialism has added another chapter to its long list of aggressions against the Venezuelan people, which includes coups d'état, the promotion of destabilizing plans and internal violence, terrorist actions, the incursion of mercenary forces, assassination attempts, sanctions, and blockades, even including threats of military intervention.

From the Zone of Peace campaign, we want to express our rejection of the statements made by the U.S. government, the European Union, and some Latin American countries, which have aligned themselves with the interests of imperialist domination in Our Americas and seek to undermine the sovereignty and popular will in Venezuela.

We strongly condemn the imposition of new sanctions against the people of Venezuela, as well as the theft of the Venezuelan-flagged plane that was in the Dominican Republic. This is yet another example of the recurring behavior of the U.S. government to try and subdue the Venezuelan people through hunger, in blatant violation of the most basic norms of international law.

We also warn of possible plans for military intervention against Venezuela, which have been encouraged by sectors allied with imperialism who aim to use the U.S. Southern Command as an execution arm of imperialist policy towards different countries on the continent, particularly against those peoples who have raised the banner of resistance and struggle for their liberation.

As part of its strategy to undermine regional integration and unity processes, U.S. imperialism has also lashed out against Honduras and its president, who currently holds the pro tempore presidency of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). The pressures, attempts at destabilization, and efforts to create the conditions for a coup in the country, similar to the coup carried out by the U.S. in 2009 and executed from the U.S. military base "Soto Cano," are a clear indication that imperialism is not willing to allow our region to consolidate paths toward building peace with social justice and a common destiny of liberation and improved living conditions for the people in this region.

Our movements and organizations will continue working to realize the proclamation made by CELAC in 2014 in Havana: to make Nuestra América (Our Americas) a Zone of Peace, free of military bases and nuclear weapons, and to enable the construction of a better future for our peoples.

The Meaning of October 7th: An Oppressed People Will Always Find a Way to Resist Oppression

The Meaning of October 7th: An Oppressed People Will Always Find a Way to Resist Oppression.

Black Alliance for Peace will never abandon the Rights of Palestinian People to Resist Zionist Colonialism “By Any Means Necessary” 

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement by popular struggle of … the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.” (BAP Principle of Unity)

Today, October 7, 2024, the world commemorates – some in horror, others in celebration – a full year of a genocidal war, prosecuted in real time in occupied Palestine. In spite of the commonly accepted lie that the Al Aqsa Flood on October 7 was the beginning, this “war” actually began on November 29, 1947, with the passing of the UN resolution that led to the creation of the Israeli settler colonial state. For the next seventy-six years, with the backing of Western governments the state of Israel would lead a war of conquest, ethnically cleansing and massacring hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, displacing and maiming millions, and establishing an apartheid state. Therefore, the Black Alliance for Peace views the Al-Aqsa Flood as a legitimate resistance operation by the besieged Palestinians – the only party with an internationally recognized right of resistance. We support Palestinian resistance against the violent military domination by white supremacist imperialism and colonialism that began, first in the form of British colonialism, and continues in the form of zionism.

In response to the prison breakout of October 7, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IDF) unleashed a horrific wave of state terror with indiscriminate bombing, targeting of civilian infrastructure, rape, torture and starvation with an obvious and specific target – the non-combatant civilian population. The result – a second Nakba – another catastrophe for the Palestinian people, with tens of thousands slaughtered with impunity. This systematic state terrorism has now engulfed Lebanon, with Israel replicating its depraved, anti-human tactics from Gaza. It began with an attempt to terrorize the resistance group Hezbollah including the killing of the group’s revered leader and anti-colonial fighter, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah. This terrorism has continued with the indiscriminate massacre of civilians in an attempt to force the Lebanese people into submission. 

Over the last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) along with all the other Western-run international bodies that claim to defend human rights have proven themselves complicit, acting as mere puppets of U.S. imperialism. As global protests erupt in fury, Israel continues its slaughter, understanding clearly that the U.S. settler-state and the white West will continue to provide it protection.  

What the last year has reconfirmed for BAP is that the violence we have witnessed is part of a global system of white supremacism dependent on unrestrained state terror in order to continue the extraction of value from still colonized and oppressed non-European peoples, working classes and nations.  The militarization of police, from the Israeli Occupation Force in Gaza to the deadly exchange programs in domestic colonized communities, is the extension of fascist settler colonialism. If we understand the U.S. as a settler project, then its global expansion can only result in one thing – replicating systems of dominance and repression everywhere. Here, we must also recognize that the attacks on Gaza and Lebanon mirror the looming assault on Haiti. Both represent the deep-rooted racist violence that has always been at the core of the Pan-European colonial/capitalist white supremacist patriarchy since this system of oppression emerged in 1492.

Speaking out against this system of global white supremacy, whether here or abroad, is met with criminalization. From resisting austerity and Cop Cities in the U.S., to the prosecution of the “Uhuru 3” as agents of Russia, to curtailing speech and protest in hopes of dismantling the ‘student intifada’ across campuses, to the Palestinians and Lebanese fighting occupation, the message is clear: dissent is dangerous. But we must stand firm in truth. The real terrorists are those upholding the illegal zionist settler-colonial apartheid regime. The Black Alliance for Peace condemns Israel's decades-long barbarism and fully supports the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation. Decolonization and self-determination are not simply demands – they are central to the realization of human rights. And since there is no real justice for Palestinians in Western-controlled international laws, we stand by their right to fight for their humanity. Collective resistance is a central principle of the People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework that guides BAP’s approach to the human rights issue. 

Fifty years into the future, the zionist massacre of Palestinians and invasion of Lebanon will be widely recognized for the war crimes that they are. But in the same way that it takes little courage today to oppose the segregation of the 1950s, the time to stand up against genocide and colonialism is right now - today. And we do not have the luxury of waiting for history to vindicate the Palestinians’ just struggle; we must act to help end the zionists’ ever-expanding genocidal war now, once and for all.

 Our struggles are intertwined: we are bound by the shared reality of living under white supremacist, settler-colonial states. When one of us suffers, we all do. And together, we will resist. Long live the resistance. Glory to the martyrs. Palestine will be free – and so will the world once our peoples unite to defeat the U.S./EU/NATO Axis Domination. 

Resist the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination

Defeat the war in the U.S. being waged against the resisters

Smash the Duopoly

No Compromise! No Retreat!

Banner photo: Palestinian young men hold a Palestinian in celebration around a destroyed tank of Israeli forces in Gaza City: (courtesy - Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency)

NO TO FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTION IN HAITI! YES, TO HAITIAN SELF-DETERMINATION!

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) urges the leaders of the nations of the Americas to oppose the upcoming United Nations’ decision to renew the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in Haiti for another 12 months. Additionally, we call on these regional leaders to challenge the United States' proposal to convert this MSS into a full-fledged UN Peacekeeping mission by 2025.

On October 16, 2022, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) sent a letter urging the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to “respect Haitian sovereignty and support the Haitian masses in their stand against the ongoing occupation of their country by foreign powers” by using their veto power and voting against another armed intervention and occupation into Haiti. In this letter, we outlined why the Haitian people perceive the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) as a foreign occupation that has undermined their independence and sovereignty since 2004. On October 3, 2023, we and over 100 social and civic movements and organizations throughout the Americas, including in Haiti and the diaspora, issued a joint statement denouncing the UN Security Council's approval of the U.S.-orchestrated, Kenya-led MSS to Haiti. In these, we laid out demands in line with those of Haitian civic and social organizations. The Haitian people are resolute in their opposition to foreign intervention and remain steadfast in their commitment to self-determination.

As we articulated in our previous letter and statement, Haiti has endured a long history of U.S. intervention and occupation. The Haitian people recognize that their current challenges stem directly from the persistent meddling of the United States, the United Nations, and the Core Group. They are unequivocal in their belief that all U.S.-led foreign interventions over the past decades have been illegal and illegitimate. Notably, the current Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) lacks legitimacy, having been authorized under the auspices of an illegitimate and U.S.-installed Prime Minister, Ariel Henry. Subsequently, the U.S., with the support of CARICOM, established a nine-member “Presidential Council” and Prime Minister, neither of which has any legal status or legitimacy in Haiti, all without the backing of the Haitian populace or the opportunity for a democratic selection process. Importantly, the U.S. demanded that those permitted on the “Presidential Council” consent to foreign intervention (the MSS). Thus, the entire process that led to the imposition of a foreign force in Haiti is fundamentally fraudulent. 

We find it extremely worrisome that the U.S. has enlisted foreign proxies—such as police and military forces from Kenya, Jamaica, and Belize—to implement its foreign policy objectives in the region. It is equally alarming that these foreign forces, as part of the MSS, enjoy effective immunity for their actions in Haiti. Given the traumatic legacy of the last UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH, 2004-2017), which was marred by violence, sexual exploitation, and a cholera epidemic, we view the MSS as a threat not only to Haiti’s sovereignty but also to the health and wellbeing of its people, particularly its children.

The Black Alliance for Peace also challenges the U.S. claim of addressing “gang violence” in Haiti. We assert that the U.S. and the so-called “international community” (including France and Canada) are fully aware that the current “gang violence” is funded and supported by Haiti’s oligarchs and the U.S.-backed political elite. This group imports weapons into the country and pays young men to instigate chaos, which is then used to manufacture consent for further invasion and occupation of Haiti. This is similar to the way the U.S. and France have increased the problem of “terrorism” in West and East Africa as a ruse to create U.S. military forces in that region, which we see in the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The awareness of these underlying dynamics is underscored by the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Canada on several members of Haiti’s economic and political elite, including former Haitian president Michel Martelly, who was installed by the U.S.

In a time of global upheaval, marked by a live-streamed genocide in Gaza and violent clashes between cartels and police in Mexico, it is perplexing that the U.S., France, and Canada are advocating for foreign occupation of Haiti—a country facing internal conflicts that do not threaten regional or global security. We must question the U.S. insistence on maintaining a military presence in Haiti at this juncture. 

As an anti-war and anti-imperialist organization, the Black Alliance for Peace warns that the U.S. aims to use Haiti as a staging ground for a permanent military base in the region to, as articulated in its foreign policy documents, secure “U.S. national security and interests” and manage rival powers, presumably Russia and China.

We once again call on your countries to respect Haitian sovereignty and support the Haitian masses in their ongoing struggle against the relentless occupation by foreign powers. Only the Haitian people can determine their own solutions. Their leaders must not be selected by the U.S. or any other foreign entity. Allowing continuous U.S. and Western control over Haiti’s political apparatus not only threatens to extinguish the nation’s hard-won sovereignty, but also weakens the sovereignty and self-determinative capacities of every other nation in the Caribbean, Central, and South America. 

As we know, Haiti is a laboratory for U.S. and Western imperialist policies and practices of domination and intervention. What is visited upon Haiti will inevitably be visited upon other nations in the hemisphere. We have seen this in Honduras as the U.S. ambassador acts like a government representative in a foreign land, against the sovereignty of that nation and its President, Xiomara Castro. This is a strategy that was fine-tuned in Haiti under the Obama-Clinton foreign policy apparatus and continues to this day. 

We ask that you, leaders throughout the Americas, reject the old colonial divisions that have made the region more susceptible to U.S. intervention, sabotage and neocolonial rule, and use regional mechanisms like CELAC to support Haitian sovereignty. As nations have stood in solidarity with Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua against imperialist assaults, sanctions, and subterfuge aimed at undermining their sovereignty, so should you oppose the interventionist crimes and colonial impositions visited upon Haiti and its people by the U.S., UN and Core Group. As the overwhelming majority of nations and people of the Americas have decried the zionist genocide in Gaza and the ongoing violation of the sovereignty of Palestine and Lebanon, so should you fight against the imperialist actions that have resulted in instability, violence, and mass death in Haiti. There can be no “Zone of Peace” in the Americas if there is no peace and freedom for the people of Haiti.

The Black Alliance for Peace, in alignment with the wishes of the Haitian masses and their supporters, unequivocally opposes continued foreign armed intervention in Haiti. We stand firm in our demand for an end to the relentless meddling by the United States and Western powers in Haitian affairs. We urge your governments and nations to stand in solidarity with the Haitian people in their fight for liberation by opposing the extension of the MSS and any future plans to convert this mission into a UN peacekeeping operation.

Signed,

The Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team

NO A LA INTERVENCIÓN MILITAR EXTRANJERA EN HAITÍ!

SÍ A LA AUTODETERMINACIÓN DEL PUEBLO HAITIANO!

Una Carta Abierta a los Líderes de las Naciones de las Américas

La Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) insta a los líderes de las naciones de las Américas a oponerse a la próxima decisión de las Naciones Unidas de renovar la Misión Multinacional de Apoyo a la Seguridad (MSS) en Haití por 12 meses adicionales. Además, hacemos un llamado a todos los líderes regionales a desafiar la propuesta de Estados Unidos de convertir esta MSS en una misión de mantenimiento de la paz de la ONU para el año 2025.

El 16 de octubre de 2022, la Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) envió una carta instando a la República Popular de China y a la Federación Rusa a “respetar la soberanía haitiana y apoyar a las masas haitianas en su lucha contra la ocupación continua de su país por parte de potencias extranjeras”, utilizando su poder de veto y votando en contra de otra intervención armada y ocupación en Haití. En esta carta, explicamos por qué el pueblo haitiano percibe a la Oficina Integrada de las Naciones Unidas en Haití (BINUH) como una ocupación extranjera que ha socavado su independencia y soberanía desde 2004. El 3 de octubre de 2023, junto con más de 100 movimientos sociales y organizaciones cívicas a lo largo de las Américas, incluyendo Haití y su diáspora, emitimos una declaración conjunta denunciando la aprobación por parte del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU de la MSS liderada por Kenia y orquestada por Estados Unidos. En estos documentos, presentamos demandas en línea con las de las organizaciones cívicas y sociales haitianas. El pueblo haitiano es firme en su oposición a la intervención extranjera y permanece decidido en su compromiso con la autodeterminación.

Como señalamos en nuestra carta y declaración anteriores, Haití ha soportado una larga historia de intervenciones y ocupaciones por parte de Estados Unidos. El pueblo haitiano reconoce que sus desafíos actuales provienen directamente de la injerencia persistente de Estados Unidos, las Naciones Unidas y el Core Group. Son claros en su convicción de que todas las intervenciones extranjeras lideradas por EE.UU. en las últimas décadas han sido ilegales e ilegítimas. Cabe destacar que la actual Misión Multinacional de Apoyo a la Seguridad (MSS) carece de legitimidad, ya que fue autorizada bajo los auspicios de un Primer Ministro ilegítimo impuesto por EE.UU., Ariel Henry. Posteriormente, EE.UU., con el apoyo de CARICOM, estableció un “Consejo Presidencial” de nueve miembros y un Primer Ministro, ninguno de los cuales tiene estatus o legitimidad legal en Haití, y todo esto sin el respaldo del pueblo haitiano ni la oportunidad de un proceso de selección democrático. Es importante señalar que EE.UU. exigió que aquellos permitidos en el “Consejo Presidencial” consintieran la intervención extranjera (la MSS). Por lo tanto, todo el proceso que llevó a la imposición de una fuerza extranjera en Haití es fundamentalmente fraudulento.

Nos preocupa profundamente que EE.UU. haya reclutado proxies extranjeros, como fuerzas policiales y militares de Kenia, Jamaica y Belice, para implementar sus objetivos de política exterior en la región. Igualmente alarmante es que estas fuerzas extranjeras, como parte de la MSS, disfruten de una inmunidad efectiva por sus acciones en Haití. Dado el legado traumático de la última misión de paz de la ONU (MINUSTAH, 2004-2017), marcada por la violencia, la explotación sexual y una epidemia de cólera, consideramos la MSS como una amenaza no solo para la soberanía de Haití, sino también para la salud y el bienestar de su pueblo, en particular sus niños.

La Alianza Negra por la Paz también desafía la afirmación de EE.UU. de que está abordando la “violencia de pandillas” en Haití. Afirmamos que EE.UU. y la llamada “comunidad internacional” (incluyendo Francia y Canadá) son plenamente conscientes de que la actual “violencia de pandillas” está financiada y respaldada por los oligarcas haitianos y la élite política respaldada por EE.UU. Este grupo importa armas al país y paga a jóvenes para que generen caos, lo que luego se utiliza para fabricar consenso a favor de más invasiones y ocupaciones en Haití. Esto es similar a cómo EE.UU. y Francia han aumentado el problema del “terrorismo” en África Occidental y Oriental como un pretexto para crear fuerzas militares estadounidenses en esa región, como vemos en el Comando África de EE.UU. (AFRICOM). La conciencia de estas dinámicas subyacentes se refleja en las sanciones impuestas por EE.UU. y Canadá a varios miembros de la élite económica y política de Haití, incluyendo al expresidente haitiano Michel Martelly, quien fue instalado por EE.UU.

En un momento de agitación global, marcado por un genocidio transmitido en vivo en Gaza y enfrentamientos violentos entre cárteles y policías en México, resulta desconcertante que EE.UU., Francia y Canadá estén abogando por la ocupación extranjera de Haití, un país que enfrenta conflictos internos que no amenazan la seguridad regional o global. Debemos cuestionar la insistencia de EE.UU. en mantener una presencia militar en Haití en este momento.

Como organización antiimperialista y antibélica, la Alianza Negra por la Paz advierte que EE.UU. pretende utilizar Haití como plataforma para una base militar permanente en la región, con el fin de, como se articula en sus documentos de política exterior, asegurar la “seguridad e intereses nacionales de EE.UU.” y gestionar potencias rivales, presumiblemente Rusia y China.

Una vez más, hacemos un llamado a sus países para que respeten la soberanía haitiana y apoyen a las masas haitianas en su lucha continua contra la incesante ocupación de potencias extranjeras. Solo el pueblo haitiano puede determinar sus propias soluciones. Sus líderes no deben ser seleccionados por EE.UU. ni por ninguna otra entidad extranjera. Permitir que continúe el control de EE.UU. y Occidente sobre el aparato político de Haití no solo amenaza con extinguir la soberanía tan duramente ganada de la nación, sino que también debilita la soberanía y la capacidad de autodeterminación de todas las demás naciones del Caribe, Centro y Sudamérica. Sabemos que Haití es un laboratorio para las políticas imperialistas de EE.UU. y Occidente de dominación e intervención. Lo que se impone sobre Haití, inevitablemente se impondrá sobre otras naciones del hemisferio: lo hemos visto en Honduras, donde el embajador estadounidense actúa como un representante del gobierno en una tierra extranjera, en contra de la soberanía de esa nación y de su presidenta, Xiomara Castro. Esta es una estrategia perfeccionada en Haití bajo la política exterior de Obama-Clinton y que continúa hasta el día de hoy.

Pedimos que ustedes, líderes de toda América, rechacen las viejas divisiones coloniales que han hecho a la región más susceptible a la intervención, el sabotaje y el dominio neocolonial de EE.UU., y utilicen los mecanismos regionales como la CELAC para apoyar la soberanía haitiana. Así como las naciones se han solidarizado con Cuba, Venezuela y Nicaragua contra los asaltos imperialistas, las sanciones y la subversión que buscan socavar su soberanía, así deben oponerse a los crímenes intervencionistas e imposiciones coloniales que Estados Unidos, la ONU y el Core Group han impuesto sobre Haití y su pueblo. Así como la mayoría de las naciones y pueblos de las Américas han denunciado el genocidio sionista en Gaza y la violación continua de la soberanía de Palestina y Líbano, deben luchar contra las acciones imperialistas que han resultado en inestabilidad, violencia y muerte masiva en Haití. No puede haber una “Zona de Paz” en las Américas si no hay paz y libertad para el pueblo de Haití.

La Alianza Negra por la Paz, en alineación con los deseos de las masas haitianas y sus seguidores, se opone de manera inequívoca a la continua intervención armada extranjera en Haití. Mantenemos firme nuestra demanda de poner fin a la incesante intromisión de Estados Unidos y las potencias occidentales en los asuntos haitianos. Instamos a sus gobiernos y naciones a solidarizarse con el pueblo haitiano en su lucha por la liberación, oponiéndose a la extensión de la MSS y a cualquier plan futuro de convertir esta misión en una operación de mantenimiento de la paz de la ONU.

Firmado,
La Alianza Negra por la Paz, Equipo Haití/Américas