Re-centering Anti-war and Anti-imperialism as Working-class Issues on May Day

MAY 1, 2018—May 1 is recognized as International Workers’ Day throughout the world except in the most bourgeois of bourgeois nations—the United States. Yet, even though the capitalist oligarchy has tried to erase the day from the awareness and memory of the working class and worker-oriented organizations and unions, the working class continues to embrace and take ownership of this day as its own.  

Today is the day that the multi-national, multi-racial working classes express solidarity with all those who labor, who have nothing but their labor power to sell in order to eke out a living for themselves and their families. Today, workers from all nations, races, genders and nationalities proclaim that—despite differences—common interests bind us and can serve as a basis for a common political stance and program of liberation from the ravages of capitalist exploitation and great power domination.

On this International Workers’ Day, over 140 million people are classified as low-income in the United States while tax cuts are given to the rich. Thirty-thousand people still die every year simply because they do not have access to health care. Thousands walk the streets not knowing where they are going to lay their heads at night. And millions of working people are paying over half their income on housing and laboring more than 50 hours a week just to keep their heads above water.

And every day, millions of undocumented workers who have been forced from their home countries by the devastating policies of a rapacious, vicious capitalist invasion of their economies must take on back-breaking work not knowing if they must evade ICE—the modern-day slave catchers—to make it home to their families that evening.

These are some of the realities facing workers in the United States, the richest capitalist nation on earth.

For the Black Alliance for Peace, it is these realities and the realities that are even more acute for Black workers and the poor, that inform our political understanding of the historic task of the day. We say without any equivocation that there will be no peace without justice, that the task of workers in the United States is to struggle for a vision of a new world that transcends the backwardness of this degenerate and anachronistic system. We have a name for the source of this degrading and dehumanizing oppression: the white supremacist, colonial/capitalist patriarchy.

Because we are clear on who/what the enemy is and our responsibilities to fight against oppression, we are also clear we will never support U.S. imperialism in any of its adventures. We are not fooled by the phony humanitarian justifications for interventions by a nation that has consistently proven to be what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called 51 years ago “the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet.”   

That is why on this International Workers’ Day we say once again: “Not one drop of blood from the working class and poor in defense of the gangsterism of the capitalist ruling class.”

We understand that state-sanctioned violence in the war being waged against Black and Brown people domestically is the flip side of the coin of the war being waged against people of color world-wide.

As colonized captives in this oppressor nation, we know that there is a necessity to struggle against domestic policies like the repressive Department of Defense 1033 program that is responsible for militarizing police forces across the country. We also know we must oppose the training of police forces by the Israeli apartheid state. We understand we have a responsibility in this oppressor nation to take on the U.S. state by opposing U.S. military interventions, destabilization campaigns, sanctions, and the subversion of nations in the cross-hairs of U.S. imperialism.

The struggle for Black liberation must be a struggle against imperialist wars.  Defending national sovereignty and self-determination of peoples and nations is not an abstract concept for BAP members—it is a guiding principle of our work.  

Therefore, an anti-war position is a necessary first step and an understandable and welcomed moral position for many in the anti-war community. However, for BAP, an anti-war position without an explicit anti-imperialist position would be a betrayal of the millions still subjected to assaults on the humanity of Africans, Asians and the people of Latin America and the Caribbean by the U.S./EU/NATO axis of domination.

Four interrelated issues confront all of humanity, but especially workers and the poor in the United States and abroad today: white supremacy, neoliberal capitalist exploitation, permanent war, and the threat to the planet by capitalist industrial processes.

Confronting these issues will only happen as a result of power being shifted from the capitalist oligarchy back to the people. But we understand that will never happen without a revolutionary movement. The good news is the tide is turning in that direction.

Brave and determined teacher unions made up primarily of women have injected new life into the struggle for the collective human right to organize. New efforts to fight for a living wage are developing across the country. The immigrant/migrant rights movement is disconnecting from the suffocating influence of the liberal establishment and rebuilding the spirit of 2006. The anti-war and anti-imperialist movements are showing new life, and Africans and Black radicals are moving toward consolidating authentic left formations under the leadership of working class organizations and movements.

But we have no illusions about what we are up against. Through its grip on communications and all of the cultural and educational institutions, the rulers are still able to convince significant numbers of workers that no alternative exists and that they can only hope for reform of the system.

Fifty years ago, worker revolts rocked the world from France to Mexico. On this day, 50 years later, let us re-dedicate ourselves to the revolutionary project that re-centers resistance to imperialist war and global structures of white supremacy as representative of a new international workers movement.

International Letter Demands Freedom for Afro-Colombian Activists Imprisoned on False Charges

CONTACT:

Charo Mina Rojas

Human Rights and International Coordinator, PCN

Tel: +57-314-370-8931

E-Mail: charominarojas@gmail.com

April 26, 2018

International Letter Demands Freedom for Sara Quiñonez and Tulia Maris Valencia

Afro-Colombian Social Movement Leaders Detained on False Charges

For Immediate Release

Individuals and organizations from around the world sent a letter today to Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez demanding that the government drop its baseless charges against social movement leaders Sara Quiñonez and her mother Tulia Maris Valencia. Both women are human rights defenders from the Afro-Colombian Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera and members of the Black Communities Process (Proceso de Comunidades Negras, PCN).

The human rights advocates face politically motivated accusations as a result of their work on behalf of the collective and human rights of Afro-descendant communities. At their arraignment hearing on April 25, a judge refused to release them pending trial. On April 24, Ms. Quiñonez and Ms. Valencia sent the following message from the courtroom in Cali: “We are women who defend the rights of Afro-Colombian peoples. We are innocent!”

Social movement leaders are particularly alarmed that the government is targeting advocates for arrest while failing to address the dramatic spike in threats and killings against human rights defenders in Colombia since the signing of the Peace Accords. Ms. Quiñonez and Ms. Valencia were forcibly displaced as a result of the threats against them. Following the murders of Genaro Garcia (2016) and Jair Cortes (2017), fellow members of the Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera, Ms. Quiñonez was forcibly displaced with her family to another part of the country where she received protection measures from both Colombia’s own National Protection Unit and from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.

Advocates are concerned the April 20 arrests signal that the government is criminalizing efforts to defend the constitutionally recognized collective and territorial rights of Afro-Colombian people. “We are concerned that these arrests are a dangerous harbinger of a possible return to the pre-Peace Accords period where human rights activists – and especially Afro-Colombian activists – were prime targets of the Colombian state,” said Jaribu Hill, Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights and Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) Coordinating Committee.

The Afro-Colombian Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera has been subjected to violence and dispossession at the hands of paramilitary groups, guerrilla groups, narcotics traffickers, soldiers, and multinational corporation over the course of decades. Ms. Quiñonez served as the President and later as the Vice-President of the Community Council, and Ms. Tulia Maris Valencia is also a well-known leader of the women’s group and serves on local committees in the Community Council. Thanks to their crucial work in defense of the community’s rights, the Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera is one of the few cases prioritized in the Ethnic Chapter of the Peace Accords between the FARC and the Colombian government.

“Afro-Colombian women human rights defenders like Ms. Quiñonez and Ms. Valencia are at the forefront of the type of social justice movements that will lead to meaningful peace, and their work must be permitted to continue. We join with Colombian social movements calling for the authorities to drop the baseless charges against Ms. Quiñonez and Ms. Valencia, and immediately release them,” said Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of MADRE.

Any U.S. Attack on Syria Is International Gangsterism

Media Contact:

Ajamu Baraka

National Organizer

info@blackallianceforpeace.com

APRIL 10, 2018—The pending military intervention into Syria by the United States represents yet another case of unilateral illegality that continues the systematic assault on international law and morality that has characterized U.S. foreign policies since the end of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, when the United States found itself without any countervailing global power. The result for the people of the world has been unending military conflicts, destabilization and the destruction of whole nations.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., correctly identified exactly a year before his assassination that the United States is the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet. The 50th anniversary of his murder just passed on April 4—five decades later, the United States continues to hold that distinctive position. This reality makes any declaration on the part of the United States that it alone has the responsibility to intervene on the side of human-rights protection an absurdity and an insult to the intelligence of the national and international communities.

Today, the people of the United States are supposed to believe the racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic Trump administration is supposedly so concerned about Arab life in Syria that it feels morally compelled to engage in direct military intervention. That is a position we in the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) do not believe based on the documented actions of this administration and all previous administrations. These regimes have demonstrated their utter contempt for the lives of non-Europeans in their quest to maintain their global dominance.

U.S. support for the continued brutality of the apartheid state of Israel and its immoral justifications for Israeli crimes against humanity committed at the apartheid wall in Gaza reflect the bi-partisan moral degeneracy of the ruling parties, media and ruling oligarchy. Their lack of real concern for Palestinian life reveals not only their lack of morality, but the real imperialist interests that determine their opportunistic position on Syria.

Just a few weeks after the massive marches to address U.S. gun violence, the people of the United States are being asked to support the ultimate form of gun violence—war. For BAP, the only way the movement to oppose gun violence in the United States will have any moral credibility is if people link gun violence in the United States to militarism and war abroad.

BAP takes an unequivocal position against U.S. intervention in Syria. We say the only institution with the right and power to protect the peace and resolve international conflict is the United Nations. We condemn any and all unilateral interventions by any state and assert that any state that violates the international norms that are committed to the maintenance of peace as established by the United Nations Charter is a rogue state that deserves international condemnation.

We say if the United States is concerned about human rights, it should:

• prosecute killer cops who savagely murdered Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California;
• investigate the approximately 1,000 killings each year at the hands of police in the United States;
• stop the mass transfer of children from juvenile courts to adult courts;
• stop the militarization of its domestic police forces;
• stop the raids of migrant communities;
• release its political prisoners; and
• cease the collaboration with the corporate media and private communication companies in its effort to censor and limit news content on the Internet.

But we know centering human rights has never been a commitment of the U.S. state. That is why BAP says if you want peace, you have to be willing to fight for it. This weekend, BAP is mobilizing with groups across the country to highlight our opposition to U.S. warmongering, demanding an end to U.S. lawlessness, calling for the closure of more than 800 U.S. military bases around the world, and ending the war against the Black and Brown working-class and poor. We support self-determination for all oppressed peoples—domestically and internationally.

Stop the ongoing agony in Syria. Demand the United States withdraw its forces from Syria and respect international law. Call for the United States to adhere to international human-rights norms and cease its status as a rogue state.

Media Contact:

Ajamu Baraka

National Organizer

info@blackallianceforpeace.com

Photo credit: FAIR

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Murder of Unarmed Palestinians by Israeli Security Forces

APRIL 2, 2018—A reported 30,000 Palestinians peacefully marched in Gaza on March 30 as they made their historic demand for a right to return to their ancestral lands when they were met by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) snipers who opened fire, killing 17 people and wounding about 1,500. The Great Return March was the beginning of a six-week long protest that was due to end May 15, the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) marking the day 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes by the new state of Israel in 1947.

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns this and all violence carried out against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government. BAP demands an end to the occupation and the continued theft of land and resources by the Israeli government. BAP calls on the U.S. government to cease financial and military support for Israel, which makes every U.S. resident complicit in an ongoing war crime. BAP condemns the corporate media that characterized the assault as a "clash"—where one side had the power of a militarized state and the other side had nothing but unarmed men, women and children.

The Israeli government continues its brazen disregard for life and even bragged about the killing in a now-deleted message posted on Twitter, proclaiming they "know where every bullet landed." Israel has no reason to fear retribution. As a client state of the United States, it acts with complete impunity. Every gun, bullet, bomb and tank in Israel is paid for by our government. The United States uses its seat on the United Nations Security Council to protect Israel and to defend it against the international law it violates on a daily basis.

The killings in Gaza occurred as people across the United States continued to demand justice for Stephon Clark, the Sacramento, California, man killed by police in that city. He is one of over 1,000 people in the United States who die at the hands of police every year. Police departments across the country are trained by the Israelis, who are expert at subjugating and terrorizing their colonized population.

The people are righteously angry about gun violence. The March for Our Lives must be a march for every life, for people victimized by armed individuals, for people killed by police departments, and for people all over the world killed by the U.S. military and its client states. BAP condemns the increased militarization of police departments in this country, which continues the violent occupation of communities of color and makes the deaths of people like Stephon Clark an inevitability.

The connections between Palestine and occupied Turtle Island are clear. BAP demands justice in the United States and in Israel and calls upon peace loving people everywhere to oppose state violence against oppressed people.

We appeal to members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to denounce the Gaza killings and join in efforts to end the unbroken military assistance provided to Israel and the use of U.S. tax revenues to subsidize this apartheid state. We invite members of the public to call the CBC today: (202) 226-9776

Free Palestine! End the occupation!

Black Lives Matter!

Media contact:

Ajamu Baraka

blackallianceforpeace@gmail.com

Photo credit: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of Thousands to Protest President Trump’s Military Parade If It Occurs

Peace and Justice Groups Say, “There will be more opponents than supporters if the military parade is held.”

US should expect protests at US embassies and other locations worldwide

Washington, DC – Leaders of major peace and anti-war organizations met on February 28, 2018 to collaborate on actions to bring hundreds of thousands of people to Washington, DC in November to protest President Trump’s military parade and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I.

Participants at the meeting are united in opposition to the military parade because it glorifies war and militarism and wastes taxpayer dollars that could be used to fund people’s necessities and protection of the planet. All agreed to mobilize people to come to DC in November or to any location on any day if plans for the military parade change. There is a lot of enthusiasm to oppose Trump’s military parade. Peace advocates intend to outnumber parade supporters. In fact, a recent informal poll by Military Times of their readers, with 51,000 responses, found 89% opposition to the parade.

“Veterans, active duty GI’s and their families are paying a high price for these endless U.S. wars,” explained Gerry Condon, president of Veterans For Peace. “We are inviting our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters in the U.S. military to march with us in Washington, DC on November 11, Armistice Day.”

David Swanson, director of World Beyond War, declared, “We will turn out en masse to oppose and overwhelm this glorification of war, whenever and wherever it happens, and to replace it with a demonstration worthy of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, a celebration of what the world could be if we put an end to war for good. A hundred years of using war to end all war has failed miserably; it’s time we tried using peace to end all war.”

Brian Becker, national director of the ANSWER Coalition adds, “The War Parade is aimed at stimulating a new war drive that will bring death and destruction to one (or more) of the countries on the Pentagon hit list, potentially Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela. The over-the-top celebrations of the war machine — in the false guise of ‘patriotism’ — also serve to stifle dissent at home, as Trump has repeatedly shown with his racist attacks on #BlackLivesMatter protesters.”

“Trump’s new idea for a $22 million military march is a big, flashy way to normalize militarization. However, let’s not be fooled. We see more militarized police and soldiers in airports, train stations and bus stations. We see videos like this one of people on an Amtrak train being asked to produce ‘papers.’ That’s why it’s all the more important we oppose the normalization of militarism in our culture,” said Ajamu Baraka, national coordinator of Black Alliance for Peace.

“Since the 1990s, over $5 billion dollars-worth of military grade weapons and equipment have been transferred to local police forces,” said Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK. “In 2017, the United States spent $794 billion dollars on foreign and domestic militarism while over 40 million people in this country lived in poverty. We need a transformation of American priorities away from hyper-militarism, and toward serving and healing our people at home and spreading peace and justice in the world.”

Armistice Day was initially a day to remember the brutalities of WWI and celebrate peace, but in 1954 the US Congress changed it to Veterans Day and it has become a day to glorify war and the veterans who fought in them. Veteran’s groups are working together to reclaim Armistice Day. Trump’s military parade is out of touch with the millions of veterans and others who want an end to war and greater investment in human needs at home and abroad as well as protection of the planet at this time of climate change and extreme environmental degradation.

The organizers also intend to urge activists around the world to protest US militarism if the parade is held. US embassies and other locations should become a focal point of opposition to US hegemony. While this parade is intended to show off brutal US weapons to intimidate other countries, it is also an opportunity for the world to take action against US militarism and threats of war.

Contact: Ajamu Baraka, info@blackallianceforpeace.com

Join a United Day of Action Against U.S. Wars at Home and Abroad

January 29, 2018—The Black Alliance for Peace, as a founding member of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, asks the public to join us in a day of action on April 14 against the United States’ policy of destructive, endless wars and expensive military interventions that have driven our country and the whole world into an increasingly dangerous crisis—politically, socially, economically, and with catastrophic impact on the environment and health.

To further deepen the crisis, the Defense Department’s new “2018 Defense Strategy” calls for a “more lethal, resilient, and rapidly innovating Joint Force ... that will sustain American influence and ensure favorable balance of power” for the U.S. around the globe, and warns that the “costs of not implementing this strategy are ... decreasing U.S. global influence ... and reduced access to markets.”

In line with this intensified militaristic policy, Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, announced recently that the U.S. military will stay in Syria indefinitely, that the U.S. is planning to partition Syria by creating a 30,000-strong pro-U.S. force on Syria’s northern territory (which has already led to a confrontation with Turkey), and that all units of the U.S. military are now going through military exercises in preparation for war!

People in the U.S. and around the world are under ever increasing attack. Our tax dollars are used for more war, to build walls and jails as the voices of racism, sexism, Islamophobia and homophobia get louder, while human needs are ignored.

This ever-increasing militarization of U.S. government policy at home and abroad calls for an urgent response by all of us.

The time is now to return to the streets as a united movement to make our anti-war and social justice voices heard. As you may know, the recent well-attended and broadly sponsored Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases adopted a resolution calling for united spring actions against U.S. wars at home and abroad. You can see the full text of the resolution on our web site: NoForeignBases.org.

The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases is proposing a united day of regional actions on the weekend of April 14 – 15. That weekend is right before Tax Day, Earth Day, and May Day, which gives us the ability to draw attention to the increase in military spending and the unpopular new tax bill, to point out that the U.S. military is the largest polluter in the world and address the growing deportation and vilification of immigrants, as well as violation of labor rights.

Please join a conference call 3-4:30 p.m., Saturday February 3, to start our collective organizing work for a united Spring National Action Against U.S. Wars at Home and Abroad. If you cannot personally make the conference call, please have someone else who can represent your organization.

Please RSVP for the call and provide your organization’s name and contact information via the form provided on our web site, NoForeignBase.org, so we can inform you of the conference call number and access code as soon as it has been set up.

Call to Global Action Against Illegal U.S. Occupation of Guantánamo

January 29, 2018—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), a founding member of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, is calling for action on or around February 23 to demand the United States end its illegal occupation of Guantánamo in Cuba.

Please see our coalition's letter below.

For more information, email info@blackallianceforpeace.com.

Afro-Colombian BAP Member's Statement on Gender Violence and Peace to the United Nations Security Council

The following statement was made by Charo Mina-Rojas, a member of the human rights team of the Black Communities’ Process, the Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network, the Black Alliance for Peace, and the Special High Level Body for Ethnic Peoples, on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on “Women and peace and security.” The statement highlights the participation of ethnically diverse women in peace negotiations; ensuring the security of human rights defenders, civil society activists and Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities; and inclusive monitoring and implementation of peace processes. It was originally delivered in Spanish.

I am a woman of African descent, and a peace and human rights activist who has spent half of my life educating and fighting for the cultural, territorial and political rights of Afro-descendant women and our communities and for our free-self-determination. It is an honor and a great responsibility to have been nominated by my global colleagues, to represent today the women and peace and security civil society community at this important debate.

I was extensively involved in the historical Havana peace process between the Colombian Government and the guerrilla group, FARC. Representing the Afro-Colombian National Council for Peace coalition (CONPA), I advocated to ensure that the rights and expectations of Afro-descendant peoples would be part of the Peace Accord that Colombia, and the world, celebrate today. I can speak first hand to the importance of inclusive negotiations and implementation processes, which support the participation of women from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds and are emblematic of the goals and principles of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000).

Colombia has become a new source of hope because of the comprehensive peace agreement reached. Two provisions were particularly progressive and could bring radical changes to future peace processes around the world: one, the explicit inclusion of a gender perspective as an intersectional principle, and the second, the inclusion of the Ethnic Chapter which provides important safeguards to ensure the respect of autonomy and the protection and promotion of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples’ rights from a gender, family and generational perspective. The inclusion of these two specific principles is a historic advancement regarding peace and security that the UN and other countries experiencing violence and armed conflicts could learn from. The Peace Accord was very important for civil society and Indigenous and Afro-descendent people, and we continue to expect the engagement and active participation of women, ethnic groups, and their communities, in its implementation.

Colombia, however, risks wasting this opportunity for peace if it does not completely disarm itself and if the communities most impacted during the internal armed conflict, including women human rights leaders and activists, continue to be ignored in the implementation of the Peace Accord. I am here today to make visible their urgent calls and want to stress that for my people, it is actually a matter of life and death.

There are three urgent priority areas I want to focus on in my statement: participation of ethnically diverse women; ensuring the security for human rights defenders, civil society activists and Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities; and inclusive monitoring and implementation of peace processes.

First, is ensuring the ongoing participation of women, especially from diverse communities, in all areas relating to the implementation of the Peace Accord. As with women around the world, women in Colombia, and particularly Afro-descendant women, we have been mobilizing for decades to make visible the violations of our rights but also to ensure significant transformations in the way peace and security is approached. My dear sister Rita Lopidia from South Sudan was here last year giving testimony on the importance of South Sudanese women participating in ongoing peace and security dialogues. In Afghanistan, the few women on the High Peace Council need to continue fighting to have their voices heard. In Colombia, there is not a representative of Afro-descendant women on the High Level Body on Gender, the body that was established to oversee the implementation of the agreement’s gender chapter.

As parties to the Peace Accord work with the international community to demobilize FARC fighters, paramilitaries and other armed actors have filled the power vacuum left by FARC forces in many areas in Colombia. This has created an urgent need for local women’s organizations and community leaders to be consulted and participate in the design of local protection strategies to keep our communities safe. The Security Council and international community must support the Colombian government in designing and implementing gender-responsive, community based security and self-protection systems in consultation with Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities. The failure to listen to our security concerns and warnings has had devastating results.

This brings me to my second point, which is the need to guarantee our integral and collective security. Security involves the safety of leaders and communities and the respect and protection of territories and territorial rights. The proliferation of weapons is fueling increased fear and forced displacement among largely Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities and negatively impacting on women’s participation and mobility, as well as resulting in increased sexual and gender based violence. We are alarmed at the increasing number of assassinations and threats to human rights defenders and peace activists across Colombia. For example, in Tumaco, a municipality near the border with Ecuador, urban leaders and members of the Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera, continue to be targeted by paramilitary groups and FARC detractors who seek territorial control in order to grow and sell coca. Just last week, we buried Jair Cortés, the sixth leader killed in that municipality, and we had to urgently move out several women leaders and their families who received death threats.

Sexual and gender-based violence and the stigmatization that comes with it, especially for Indigenous and Afro-descendent women and their children, is also a matter of integral and collective security. The silence around these crimes is as appalling as the crimes themselves. Women activists risk their lives to bring cases before the justice system. There is an urgent need to establish a direct line of communication between Indigenous and Afro-descendent authorities and representatives of women organizations in all mechanisms of the Comprehensive System for Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition to ensure these cases are prioritized, that perpetrators are brought to justice and survivors provided with lifesaving medical and psychosocial services.

Finally, it is crucial that the framework plan for the implementation of the Peace Accord includes specific goals and indicators designed to measure the progress and outcomes of policies, programs and reforms in a manner corresponding to the needs, values and rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples. It is critical that the Colombian government and its implementation commission (CSIVI) accept and integrate the ethnic perspectives and indicators, including the specific gender ethnic indicators, developed and provided to them by Indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations earlier this month. Political will on these indicators is needed, as is to include them in the legal framework of the Peace Accord. They will help effectively transform the war-like conditions preventing the well-being, social development and collective security of Indigenous and Afro-descendent women and our communities.

For Afro-descendant women in Colombia and Indigenous women leaders worldwide ensuring our collective security also means that the principles of free, prior and informed consent; consultation; autonomy; cultural integrity, and meaningful participation are respected and our human rights enshrined in national and international human rights standards are fully promoted and protected. Peace in Colombia and elsewhere, is not simply a matter of ending war and violence but addressing collectively the root causes of conflict including social, gender and racial injustice and promoting the well-being of all people of all races and religions. It is about supporting the efforts of local women activists to demilitarize and disarm our whole societies, and curbing the flow of small arms as prescribed in the Arms Trade Treaty and other legal instruments. It is the responsibility of all actors, including the Security Council, the UN system, regional and sub-regional organizations, and importantly, Member States, to fulfill their obligations. The women, peace and security agenda, if implemented and financially resourced, can be the pathway to peace in my country and around the world, where gender equality, women’s empowerment and protection of women’s rights are central to conflict prevention and sustainable peace.

Thank you.

BAP Member to Address United Nations on Colombia Peace Process

Charo Mina-Rojas, a long-time Afro-Colombian activist who has been involved in her country's peace process since the 22-day civil strike in Buenaventura, Colombia, will speak to the United Nations Security Council this month. See the document below for the official statement. Mina-Rojas is also a BAP member and organizes for Proceso de Comunidades Negras.

DOWNLOAD: Statement by MADRE and Proceso de Comunidades Negras

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Cornel West, Chris Hedges and Human Rights Activists Call on Colombia to Provide Healthcare, Infrastructure Improvements

Peace Process at a Critical Juncture; Began After 22-Day Strike Preventing Millions of Dollars in Exports from Entering Country

Below you will find a letter the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) signed onto. Many of our comrades—from Chris Hedges and Cornel West to CODEPINK and Pan-African Community Action—also have stepped up to demand Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos give in to the demands of Afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples.

PDF of letter in Spanish and English

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To President Juan Manuel Santos and Members of the Commission to Monitor, Promote, and Verify Implementation of Colombia’s Peace Accord (CSIVI)

Dear President Santos and CSIVI Members,

The undersigned gender, racial, social and environmental justice organizations and advocates from around the world applaud the inclusion of the Ethnic Chapter and other racial and gender rights measures in Colombia’s Final Agreement to End the Armed Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace. If implemented, these provisions will allow Colombia to set a global example of holistic peacebuilding—one that meaningfully addresses the social inequalities that help fuel conflict. We are, however, deeply concerned about the inadequate consultation with and recognition of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous authorities in peace implementation activities to date, and the ways in which this endangers the lives, security, and territorial and human rights of Afro-Descendant and Indigenous Peoples, including women and girls. We encourage the Government to act in good faith to ensure that Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Peoples’ rights are maintained and furthered in peace implementation.

It is crucial that the framework plan for implementing the Peace Accord contain indicators to measure the progress and outcomes of policies, programs and reforms in a manner that corresponds to the needs, values, and rights of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Peoples, including their gender-based rights. These can only be developed with meaningful participation of their respective authorities and organizations. We understand that the Government and CSIVI recently agreed to a work agenda with the Special High-Level Body with Ethnic Peoples for Monitoring Implementation of the Peace Accords to develop and include such indicators and to assign resources and provide conditions for meaningful participation of Afro-Descendant and Indigenous Peoples in implementation. This is positive news, as we believe inclusiveness at the outset of the framework plan will help ensure structural advances for Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Peoples, who have disproportionately born the consequences of the armed conflict, and whose communities suffer the greatest levels of poverty and least access to health and educational infrastructure in Colombia.

While it is cause for hope that the Government and CSIVI agreed to this agenda of work, a broader pattern of exclusion keeps us vigilant. For example, while the Peace Accord requires the Government to include an ethnic and cultural perspective in implementing its Security and Protection Program, the parties have failed to meaningfully consult with and support Afro-Colombian and Indigenous authorities and communities in the design and implementation of community based self-protection plans, and to ensure adequate security overall in their territories. As FARC fighters demobilized, paramilitaries and other armed actors have filled the remaining power vacuum in many areas, as was predicted by parties to the Accord, which named these actors the “greatest threat” to peace.

The site of the majority of fighting during the conflict, these areas heavily overlap with Afro-Colombian and Indigenous territories. Because of the lack of consultation and ensuing insecurity, entire Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities are again facing displacement, as violence, forced disappearances, attacks on human rights defenders, threats, and kidnappings increase. The forced displacement rate increased in the first half of 2017, as compared with the first half of 2016, with Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Peoples comprising 94% of those displaced in the first months of 2017.

Afro-Colombian and Indigenous women and children, who suffered disproportionately high levels of conflict-related gender-based violence, face dramatically increased vulnerability to human rights violations in the face of this ongoing physical and economic insecurity. In light of this, it is concerning that there is no representative of Afro-Colombian women’s organizations on the Special Body to Contribute to Guaranteeing Gender Focus in the Implementation of the Final Accord, despite Afro-Colombian women’s and girls’ disproportionate victimization and lack of access to comprehensive care and restitution.

The lack of consultation also bodes poorly for the Government’s commitment to uphold Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Peoples’ right to give or withhold free, prior and informed consent to laws, policies, and development projects that impact their lives and their territories. It was cause for celebration that the Peace Accord reaffirmed this constitutionally protected right, but history reveals a continued pattern of undermining territorial rights in practice, and megaproject development in Colombia has frequently worsened social, economic and environmental crises in these territories. In the context of implementing key components of peace implementation, such as the Development Programs with a Territorial Focus (PDETs), it appears the Government again risks overriding territorial rights. The National Afro-Colombian Peace Council (CONPA) has observed that the Land Renovation Agency (ART), which is tasked with implementing the PDETs, has failed to work directly with Afro-Colombian and Indigenous authorities and organizations to develop a methodology that will ensure meaningful, rather than symbolic, participation in forming the PDETs. Meaningful participation is critical for ensuring that PDETs are grounded in Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Peoples’ own aspirations and goals for well-being and development. It is their respective authorities and organizations who are best positioned to devise participation methods.  

Protecting Afro-Colombian and Indigenous People’s territorial and other collective rights is fundamental to ensuring peace in Colombia. In order to fully implement the Ethnic Chapter, it is critical that the parties consult and collaborate with Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Peoples, including women’s organizations, at all stages of peace implementation. By doing so, we believe that Colombia could transform itself, as it heals from decades of conflict, and become a global leader in social justice and environmental protection. The Chapter and related provisions in the Peace Accord are a step in that direction, and they build on Colombia’s other landmark legal norms for racial and gender justice. Towards fully realizing the vision contained in those laws and policies, we urge you to consider the following recommendations:

-In the framework plan for implementation of the Peace Accord, ensure inclusion of indicators designed to measure the progress and outcomes of policies, programs and reforms in a manner corresponding to the needs, values, and rights of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Peoples. Develop the indicators in collaboration and consultation with Afro-Colombian and Indigenous authorities, and with women representatives and organizations, and commit the necessary resources for implementing these aspects of the plan.

-Immediately provide security in Afro-Colombian and Indigenous territories, in consultation with their respective authorities and community organizations, in order to prevent violence against them, and to ensure that paramilitaries and other armed actors are investigated and held fully accountable for violence, including gender-based violence. This should include resources for training and strengthening traditional security forces, and should include support for and implementation of a gender perspective.

-Create a line of direct communication between Indigenous and Afro-Colombian authorities and representative organizations, and both the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), and the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition, to adequately address issues facing victims of sexual and gender-based violence in the conflict, and ensure that these bodies prioritize these cases. Ensure data collection includes information disaggregated race, ethnicity and gender.

-Urge the Land Renewal Agency (ART) to meet with Indigenous and Afro-Colombian authorities and representatives, and to develop in consultation with them a strategy to secure full participation and autonomy of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Peoples in formulation and implementation of PDETs.

-Take good-faith, immediate steps to implement and fund all initiatives in the Ethnic Chapter of the Peace Accord, and to ensure respect for the fundamental right of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples to free, prior and informed consent regarding any policies or development program impacting their territories.

We thank you for your consideration of these recommendations.

Sincerely,
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), USA
Black Alliance for Peace, USA
Common Frontiers, Canada
Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic- CUNY School of Law, USA
Just Associates (JASS), USA
MADRE, USA
NORDIK Institute at Algoma University, CANADA
Washington Office on Latin America, USA
African American Human Rights Foundation, USA
Africa World Now Project, USA
AFROAMERICAS Network
ask! - Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien, Switzerland
The British Columbia Government and Service Employee’s Union, Canada
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canada
Colombia Working Group, Canada
Center for Constitutional Rights, USA
Center for Women's Global Leadership, USA
Community Economic & Social Development Program at Algoma University, Canada
Coalición de Movimientos y Organizaciones Sociales y Populares de Colombia, Colombia
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
CODEPINK, USA
Colectivo COPERA- Colectivo para eliminar el racismo en México, México
Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance (CASA), Canada
Corporación Colombia Visión Sur, Colombia
Corporación Mamuncia y Cacumen, Colombia
Defenders' Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, USA
Desarrollo Económico y Social de los Mexicanos Indígenas, A.C., México
Dr. Keith Jennings, President, African American Human Rights Foundation
Economic and Social Development of Indigenous Mexicans, AC (DESMI, AC), Mexico
El Comite Noruego de Solidaridad con America Latina, Norway
Environmental Conflicts Observatory (OCA), Institute for Environmental Studies, National University of Colombia, Colombia
Feminist Alliance for Rights, USA
FOKUS-Forum for Women and Development, Norway
Fondo de Acción Urgente para América Latina y el Caribe (Urgent Action Fund Latin America and the Caribbean), Colombia
Freedom House, USA
Friends of the Congo, USA
Fondo de Acción Urgente para América Latina y el Caribe, Colombia
The Global Justice Center, USA
Green Party of the United States, USA
Grupo de Investigación Ciencia de la Información, Sociedad y Cultura, Pontificia Universidad la Javeriana, Pontificia Universidad la Javeriana, Colombia
Grupo de Investigación "Conflicto, región y sociedades rurales" de la Facultad de Estudios
Ambientales y Rurales, Colombia
Health and Human Rights Info, Norway
Human Rights Advocates, USA
Institute for Gender Research and Documentation, Sierra Leone
Institute of the Black World 21st Century, USA
Instituto de Bioética - Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, USA
KolumbienKampgne, Germany
Latin America Working Group, USA
Latin American & Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN), Canada
LIMPAL Colombia, Colombia
M. Adams, Freedom Inc., USA
Mesa Ecuménica por la Paz, Colombia
The Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights, USA
More Gardens Fund, USA
National Lawyers Guild, USA
Observatorio de Conflictos Ambientales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
Observatorio de Discriminación Racial, Colombia
Observatorio de Territorios Étnicos y Campesinos – Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales de la Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
Organización Living in English Corp - Autoridad Raizal, Colombia
OutRight Action International, USA
Pan-African Community Action
Pax Christi Medellin - Medellin PC, Colombia
Popular Resistance, USA
Rainforest Action Network, Lindsey Allen, Executive Director, USA
Red de Acción e Investigación Antiracista, Americas
Revival of Panafricanism Forum, USA
SAIH – El Fondo de Asistencia Internacional de los Estudiantes y Académicos noruegos, Norway
Santa Clara Law School - International Human Rights Clinic, USA
SHARE Foundation, El Salvador
Steelworkers Humanity Fund, Canada
StopImperialism.org, USA
Taller de Vida, Colombia
UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, USA
US Peace Council, USA
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, USA
West African Research & Innovation Management Association, Sierra Leone
Young Feminists Network, Nigeria
Ahmed Eltouny, Green Party US International Committee, USA
Aisha Fofana Ibrahim, Ph.D., University of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone
Amanda Romero, Escuela Superior de Administración Pública (ESAP), Colombia
Ana Isabel Rodriguez Iglesias
Andrea Mérida Cuéllar
Angélica J. Afanador-Pujol, Ph.D., Arizona State University, USA
Arlene Eisen, USA
Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
Bill Fletcher, Jr., USA
Blaine Bookey, USA
Brad Geyer, USA
Bruce Mannheim, Senior Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan, USA
Carlos Agudelo, France
Carlos Andrés Baquero, Colombia
Carmen Anachury Diaz, Colombia
Caroline Yezer, Research Affiliate, Clark University, USA
Chris Hedges, Author and Human Rights Activist
Cornel West, USA
Daniel Kovalik, Associate General Counsel, United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW), USA
Diana Isabel Guiza Gomez, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
Divalizeth Murillo, Reporter, USA
Dr. Anthony Gronowicz, 2013 Green Party Candidate for Mayor of New York
Dr. Bronislaw Czarnocha, Hostos CC, City University of New York, USA
Dr. Francisco Dominguez, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Dr. Pascha Bueno-Hansen, University of Delaware, USA
Dr. Rose Brewer, Black Alliance for Peace, USA
Dra. Rachel Sieder, CIESAS, D.F., México
Emidio "Mimi" Soltysik, Socialist Party Los Angeles Local, USA
Eva Kolodner, Regional Director East, Global Fund for Women, USA
Francisco Mora Villate, Colombia
Ginetta E.B. Candelario, Smith College, USA
Guillermo Alberto Padilla Rubiano, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Hector Lopez, Green Party, USA
Immanuel Ness, USA
Jaime Arocha, Grupo de Estudios Afrocolombianos, Universidad Nacional, Colombia
James Counts Early, Board of Institute for Policy Studies, USA
Jason Berteotti, Green Party of PA, USA
Jean E. Jackson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Jonathan Fox, School of International Service, American University, USA
Joshua Frank, Managing Editor, CounterPunch
Kevin Zeese, Co-Director, Popular Resistance
Lucy Murphy, Art for People, USA
Lynn Stephen, University of Oregon, USA
M Adams, Freedom, Inc, USA
Marcus A. Johnson, City University of New York, Baruch, USA
Margaret Flowers, Co-Director, Popular Resistance
Margarita Huayhua, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA
Margo Okazawa-Rey, Women for Genuine Security and International Women's Network against Militarism, USA
Margi Clarke, SHARE Foundation, El Salvador
Maria Cristina Guerrero, Corporacion Mandiyaco, Colombia
Mary O'Connor, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Mauricio Sanchez Alvarez, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, México
Maylei Blackwell, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Mayra Johana Tenjo, Rights and Resources, USA
Mesi Walton, Diaspora Dance, USA
Mneesha Gellman, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Emerson College, USA
Olutimehin Adegbeye, Young Feminists Network, Nigeria)
Paige Andrew, WE-Change Jamaica, Jamaica
Patricia Botero Gómez, Docente e investigadora de la Universidad de Manizales, Colombia
Peter Ranis, Professor Emeritus/ Political Science, City University of New York, USA
Prof. Concepción Martinez, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, México
Ramiro S. Fúnez, USA
Robert Andolina, USA
Roosbelinda Cardenas, Hampshire College, USA
Amb. Shirley E. Barnes, U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar (Ret.), USA
Tanya Kateri Hernandez, Fordham University School of Law, USA
Tianna S. Paschel, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Virginie Laurent, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
William Lucy, President Emeritus, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Yellen Aguilar-Ararat, P.C.N., Colombia



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For more information:
Ajamu Baraka
National Organizer and Spokesperson
Black Alliance for Peace
info@blackallianceforpeace.com

BAP Calls On Organizations to Support Colombian Peace Process

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) asks peace-minded organizations to sign onto a letter that asks the Colombian government to meet the demands of ordinary Afro-Colombians and Indigenous people.

The letter (links below) asks Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to provide healthcare and infrastructure improvements to the people of the city of Buenaventura.

In May, thousands of Afro-Colombians and Indigenous people shut down the port city, preventing millions of dollars of cargo from entering the country. After a 22-day strike, the government agreed to negotiate. However, since then, paramilitary forces have threatened and killed a few people involved.

The Colombian peace process is now at a critical juncture.

That's why we're asking organizations to sign onto the letter below and circulate it among your networks to obtain additional signatures by Friday, September 29.

The letter is available in English and Spanish.

To sign it, email sign-on@madre.org.

English letter

Spanish letter

Contact:

Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer

Black Alliance for Peace

info@blackallianceforpeace.com

Photo credit: Escobar Mora/AFP

Join BAP to Oppose Escalation of Afghanistan War

September 6, 2017—The Black Alliance for Peace endorses the Week of Action from October 2 to October 8 to oppose the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. That week marks 16 years of U.S-led bombings and military violence in a poverty stricken nation.

See below for a statement from a coalition of anti-war organizations on how to get involved.

For media inquiries, contact Ajamu Baraka at info@blackallianceforpeace.com.

U.S. Antiwar Leaders Call for Actions to Oppose the Escalation of the Afghanistan War During the Week of the 16th Anniversary of the Invasion, October 2 - 8.  Join Us.
 

Endorse the Week of action: http://notowar.net/endorse-no-to-war-2017/

Add Your Action to the List of Actions:
http://notowar.net/post-your-action/

For more information:
http://notowar.net/

October 6, 2017 marks the 16th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan – the longest foreign war in U.S. history.

The Afghan war, which has been a thoroughly bipartisan effort, was originally railed against by Donald Trump when he was running for president. He claimed to be against U.S. troop involvement in Afghanistan. Now he is moving forward with a “secret” plan of escalation that will also include Pakistan.  He says the secrecy is to keep the “enemy” from knowing his plans, but it also keeps the U.S. people from knowing what he is doing in our name and from judging the human costs for the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States

What we do know is that military escalation has repeatedly failed to bring peace in Afghanistan. It has caused more destruction and more deaths of civilians and soldiers alike and has cost trillions of dollars that could be spent on meeting basic needs here at home while repairing the destruction we have carried out abroad.

Trump also emboldens the war machine here in the US against Black and Brown people and immigrants by fanning white supremacy and xenophobia and continuing the militarization of the police and ICE to incite racially-motivated violence and justify repression, including mass incarceration and mass deportations. US wars of aggression and militarism abroad go hand-in-hand with increased state repression and militarization of the police state here at home.

Trump’s new escalation comes at a time when there is no end in sight to the continuous wars, including drone and mercenary warfare, throughout the region and when he is threatening military action against Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, Iran and other countries.

Therefore, we the undersigned antiwar leaders in the U.S. are calling for non-violent protests in cities across the country during the week of the 16th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. We appeal to all antiwar organizations in the United States and around the world to join us.

• John Amidon, Kateri Peace Conference, VFP

• Jessica Antonio, BAYAN USA

• Bahman Azad, US Peace Council

• Ajamu Baraka, Black Alliance for Peace

• Medea Benjamin, Code Pink

• Toby Blome, Code Pink, Bay Area

• Brian Becker, ANSWER Coalition

• Reece Chanault, US Labor Against the War

• Bernadette Ellorin – International League of People’s Struggle

• Sara Flounders, International Action Center

• Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Nuclear Power & Weapons in Space

• Larry Hamm, People’s Organization for Progress

• Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

• Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report

• Ed Kinane, Upstate Drone Action

• Matthew Hoh – Veterans for Peace

• Joe Lombardo, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

• Marilyn Levin, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

• Judith Bello, Upstate Drone Action

• Jeff Mackler, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

• Alfred Marder, US Peace Council

• Maggie Martin, About Face: Veterans Against the War (formerly IVAW)

• Ray McGovern, Former CIA Analyst and Presidential Advisor

• Michael McPhearson, Veterans For Peace

• Nick Mottern, Knowdrones.com

• Malik Mujahid, Muslim Peace Coalition

• Elsa Rassbach, Code Pink & UNAC, Germany

• Bob Smith, Brandywine Peace Community

• David Swanson, World Beyond War

• Debra Sweet, World Can’t Wait

• Ann Wright, Code Pink & Veterans For Peace

• Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance

• Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Defense

Black Alliance for Peace Demands U.S. Aggression Against North Korea Cease

September 5, 2017—The Black Alliance for Peace is resolute in its opposition to United States-led imperialism, no matter which nations may be among the targets. We contend no justification exists for U.S. government interference in the affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), better known as North Korea.

President Donald Trump differs from his predecessors only with his intemperate language, threatening “fire and fury” and asserting that the U.S. military is “locked and loaded.”

The corporate media may lampoon his choice of words, but they do not oppose the premise that this country has the right to tell North Korea and every other sovereign nation what it can and cannot do.

Like the United States, North Korea has the right to test and develop as many weapons as it chooses. North Korea does not need another country’s permission to enhance its arsenal. Given the United States’ history of aggression, it would appear wise to do so. Any country deemed an enemy of the United States that does not have a strong defense is in danger of ending up like Iraq or Libya—invaded or destroyed by other means.

The U.S. military is the greatest threat to world peace. With more weapons—nuclear and conventional—than any other nation in the world, the United States is armed with the capacity for complete global destruction multiple times over.

The greatest danger stemming from North Korea’s missile program comes from American reactions to it.

The war party is made up of Democrats and Republicans who were nearly unanimous in passing a bill requiring economic sanctions not just against North Korea, but against Iran and Russia as well.

These countries are guilty of only one thing. They assert their right to exist and to resist American hegemony.

It is the United States that escalates tension with war games that simulate an invasion of North Korea. At the same time that North Korea is labeled a danger, the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system is being installed in South Korea. The THAAD poses a very real threat to peace in the region.

North Korea is not the only country targeted by the United States in this latest crisis. The saber rattling is also directed against China, which like the rest of the world, has great reason to defend itself against Trump and the war party duopoly. While the media helps the United States frighten the American public unnecessarily, none of them will speak simple truth. The truth is the United States doesn't have to do anything about North Korea. America is not exceptional, nor is it indispensable. It should not have more rights than other nations and should not be allowed to threaten the world with destruction.

One would not know it from reading major American newspapers, but voices of reason exist around the world. Most American reporters and op-ed writers seem to see North Korea as a problem to be solved instead of as a nation to be engaged in a serious and respectful manner. They deliberately obscure the history of America’s near destruction of North Korea from 1950 to 1953 and the fact that the truce never ended the war between the north and south on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea is considered a bogeyman whether it tests missiles or not. It has been accused of everything from hacking into the Sony corporation computer systems to creating new malware viruses. Its president, Kim Jong-un, is treated like a joke or a demon. He appears to have chosen what seems to be the only defense he has at his disposal—to make America think twice about attacking his country.

The media may call North Korea a “rogue” nation, but that designation belongs to the United States. The United States has more than 1,000 military facilities around the globe. It spends more money on defense than any other country and has more conventional and nuclear weapons than any other nation. This should not be normalized. Yet it is.

This monstrous situation did not begin with Donald Trump. It has been building for decades as the United States became the world’s only superpower. Every American president exceeds the violence committed by predecessors and there is consensus among the politicians and punditry that “might makes right.” That is a patriarchal-white-supremacist-capitalist logic embodied in a national identity. The target may be North Korea or China or Russia or Iran or Iraq or Syria or Somalia. Regardless, the apparent goal of the United States’ global policy is for Full Spectrum Dominance, a doctrine which brings horrific conflict closer to reality.

Trump’s rhetoric may be more dangerous, but he is just the latest American president to make unilateral threats of nuclear attack.

Yet, the United States is not the only one that can assert its strength. The Chinese government has made clear that it will not stand by and allow the United States to attack North Korea. China’s ability to defend its ally is real. The pundits and politicians who utter words just as dangerous as Trump’s are equally culpable in bringing the world to the brink of multi-national conflict and casualties.

People who say they want peace, claim to be anti-fascist, and speak against white supremacy and patriarchy, must stand with North Korea against threats from the United States. The Black Alliance for Peace joins with people of conscience all over the world in condemning America’s aggressions and threats of aggression against North Korea and every other nation. 

Hands Off North Korea!

No to U.S. Military Exercises Against North Korea and China!

Remove THAAD Missiles and U.S. Bases from South Korea!

For media inquiries, contact Ajamu Baraka: info@blackallianceforpeace.com

Photo credit: Defense Ministry/Yonhap/via REUTERS

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Trump Administration Intent to Hyper-Militarize State and Local Law Enforcement

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns the announcement today by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions before a gathering of the National Fraternal Order of Police (NFOP) that the administration of President Donald Trump intends to remove the restrictions on the government’s 1033 Program—transfer of deadly military grade equipment to local and state police forces.

According to BAP national organizer Ajamu Baraka, "Since President Barack Obama's administration’s so-called restrictions were merely a publicity stunt that had no measurable impact on the flow of deadly weapons going to police forces, the Trump administration’s announcement is intended to send another public message—that it intends to make war on Black and Brown people in the United States.”

Jeff Sessions claimed in Monday’s speech that the Trump administration “is rescinding restrictions from the prior administration that limited your agencies; ability to get equipment through federal programs.” However, we at BAP understand this order is meant as yet another green light for increased repression and brutality against Black and Brown working class and poor communities.

Therefore, BAP demands that an immediate halt to the racist, repressive 1033 Program and a suspension of all transfers of military grade equipment to local and state police that are currently being processed.

Furthermore, we specifically call on members of the Congressional Black Caucus (the "conscience of Congress”), and all progressive-minded congressional representatives, to take a public stand against all aspects of the 1033 Program.

The 1033 Program evolved out of the 1990 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)'s original authorization to facilitate the transfer of surplus military grade weaponry to state and local police forces as part of the federal government's so-called "War on Drugs." In the 1997 NDAA, the authorized transfer was named the 1033 program and it was expanded to include counter-terrorism. It has been largely responsible for the militarization of police forces across the nation as a result of over $5.4 billion worth of equipment being transferred to state and local police agencies.

Pressure from some members of Congress and demands from various organizations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement led to the Obama Administration placing some restrictions on a small class of equipment. But the flow of deadly equipment did not stop. In fact, according to the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which oversees the transfers, the value of the equipment reaching state and local police agencies actually increased the year after the restrictions were imposed.

It is clear that this “domestic weapons supply” program was never meant only to fight drugs or terrorism, but to contain and control Black and Brown bodies victimized by the rapacious consequences of a racist, capitalist order that has rendered whole sectors of the U.S. population disposable.

###

Contact: Ajamu Baraka, info@blackallianceforpeace.com

Photo credit: Jeff Roberson/AP

Black Alliance for Peace Calls on the United States to End Its War in Afghanistan

August 22, 2017—Once the Trump administration concluded its analysis of the war in Afghanistan, it had an opportunity to announce a sensible solution to the longest war in U.S. history by calling on all parties to the conflict to enter into serious discussions to create a process for national reconciliation and peace.

Instead, the administration committed the United States to an endless war in Afghanistan with no clear criterion for what the administration would define as a “win.” Moreover, by suggesting that the administration will curry favor with India—Pakistan’s bitter rival—in order for it to play a role in solving the conflict in Afghanistan amounts to a dangerous and cynical ploy that could inflame the already tense relations between the two nuclear-armed nations.

TAKE ACTION: Join BAP for the Week of Action opposing the escalation of this war.

President Donald Trump’s call for support to increase military spending was a crude and opportunistic rationalization for endless war and the squandering of the nation’s precious resources, including the lives of its young.

The policies of this administration reflect the U.S. oligarchy’s continued commitment to use military force to advance its interests throughout the world. Members of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) understand that U.S. policymakers see the continued presence of the United States in Afghanistan as a strategy to counter the growing cooperation between China and the Russian Federation on the Chinese “silk road” project.

We also know that U.S. capitalists have their eyes on newly discovered and untapped mineral reserves of iron, cobalt, copper, gold, and lithium estimated at a value of over $1 trillion. This increases Afghanistan’s value for the U.S. corporate and financial sector, which has no problem sending young people off to die for its narrow interests.

With the bipartisan vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to increase the military budget by $75 billion—a figure that represents more than the entire military budget of the Russian Federation—it is no longer accurate to characterize this grotesque proposal as Trump’s idea.

The commitment to Full Spectrum Dominance has always had bipartisan support, but Democrats and their liberal allies have been able to present its militarism as somehow more benevolent than the Republicans’. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the United States as the world’s dominant global power, the commitment to maintain U.S. hegemony and its predatory form of capitalism known as neoliberalism has always been a bipartisan objective.

Before he even ran for president, Trump questioned the wisdom of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, seeing it as a lost cause that wasted resources and lives. Now as president, Trump has a different take. Joining the last two presidents before him, he adopted the agenda of military-industrial elites who see the necessity for a permanent U.S. presence in the country, resulting in the United States and its NATO partners establishing nine permanent military bases in the country.

The United States—as part of the U.S./EU/NATO axis domination—has been responsible for unspeakable acts of violence in every part of the world, with most of the victims of U.S. state violence being the non-European peoples of the world.

In an obscene testament to U.S. vanity and the psychopathological commitment to global white supremacy, billions of dollars have already been wasted, almost three thousand U.S. lives lost and over 100,000 non-U.S. lives have been taken.

It is time to admit defeat in Afghanistan and bring the war to an end. Justice and common sense demands that the bloodletting stop.

###

For more information, contact:

Ajamu Baraka

National Organizer, Black Alliance for Peace

info@blackallianceforpeace.com

TAKE ACTION: Join BAP for the Week of Action opposing the escalation of this war.

Black Alliance for Peace Joins the Coalition to Close Military Bases

July 30, 2017—The Black Alliance for Peace has joined the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, in pursuit of its vision for a peaceful world. BAP is a Founding Organization of this coalition and BAP national organizer Ajamu Baraka will serve on the coalition's board.

For more information or to request an interview, email info@blackallianceforpeace.com.

Philando Castile, Charleena Lyles and the Body Count in the U.S. War Against Black People Continues

Before we can even process the acquittal of the murder of Philando Castile, we hear about another murder of a black person by the police occupation forces.  This time the victim, Charleena Lyles, is a black woman who was also five months pregnant.

Again, there is anger, confusion and calls for justice from the black community of Seattle, where the latest killing took place. Many might remember that it was in Seattle where two members of the local black community attempted to call out the racist and hypocritical liberal white community during a visit by Bernie Sanders. The black activists were subsequently shouted down by a majority of Bernie’s supporters.  One of the issues that the activists wanted to raise was the repressive, heavy-handed tactics of the Seattle Police Department.

Some have argued that this rash of killings of black people caught on video or reported by dozens of witnesses is nothing new, that the images of police chocking, shooting and beating poor black and working-class people is now more visible because of technological innovations that make it easier to capture these images. They are partially right.

As an internal colony in what some refer to as a prison house of nations that characterizes the U.S. nation state, black communities are separated into enclaves of economic exploitation and social degradation by visible and often invisible social and economic processes. The police have played the role not of protectors of the unrealized human rights of black people but as occupation forces. In those occupied zones of repression, everyone knows that the police operate from a different script than the ones presented in the cop shows that permeate popular entertainment culture in the U.S. In those shows, the police are presented as heroic forces battling the forces of evil, which sometimes causes them to see the law and the rights of individuals as impediments. For many viewers, brutality and other practices is forgiven and even supported because the police are supposedly dealing with the evil irrational forces that lurk in the bowels of the barrios and ghettos in the imagination of the public. 

It was perfectly plausible for far too many white people in the U.S. that a wounded Mike Brown, already shot and running away from Darren Wilson the cop who would eventually murdered Michael, would then turn around and run back at Wilson, who claim he had no other choice but to engulf Michael in a hail of bullets killing this “demon” as Wilson described him. And unfortunately, many whites will find a way to understand how Charleena, who called the police herself to report a burglary, would then find herself dead at the hands of the police she called.

But the psychopathology of white supremacy is not the focus here. We have commented on that issue on numerous occasions. The concern is with some black people who have not grasped the new conditions that we find ourselves in—that black people don’t understand that there will never be justice as defined by the cessation of these kinds of killings.  Why? Because incarceration, police killings, beatings, charging our children as adults and locking them away for decades, all of these are inherent in the logic of repression that has always characterized the relationship between the U.S. racist settler-state and black people. 

In other words, if Black people really want this to stop we have to come to the difficult conclusion, for some, that the settler-colonial, capitalist, white supremacist state and society is the enemy of black people and most oppressed people in the world. Difficult for many because it means that Black people can no longer deny the fact that we are not equal members of this society, that we are seen as the enemy and that our lives, concerns, perspectives, history and desires for the future are of no concern to the rulers of this state and for vast numbers of ordinary whites.

That is why Charleena Lyles joins Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, John Crawford and Philando Castile, just a few of the names of our people victimized in the prime of their lives by the protectors of white power wearing police uniforms.

She will not be the last. 

The logic of neoliberal capitalism has transformed our communities and peoples into a sector of the U.S. population that is no longer needed. This new reality buttressed by white supremacist ideology that is unable to see the equal value of non-European (white) life has created a precarious situation for black people, more precarious, than any other period in U.S. history.

African (Black) people are a peaceful people and believe in justice.  But there can be no peace without justice. For as long as our people are under attack, as long as our fundamental collective human rights are not recognized, as long as we don’t have the ability to determine our own collective fate, we will resist, we will fight, and we will create the conditions to make sure that the war being waged against us will not continue to be a one- sided conflict.   

The essence of the People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework is that the oppressed have a right to right to resist, the right to self-determination, and the right to use whatever means necessary to protect and realize their fundamental rights.

Charleena, we will say your name and the names of all who have fallen as we deliver the final death-blow against this organized barbarism known as the U.S.

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For more information, contact:

Ajamu Baraka

National Organizer, Black Alliance for Peace

info@blackallianceforpeace.com

An End to the Civic Strike in Buenaventura, Colombia, Marks a New Beginning

This is a statement from BAP member Charo Mina-Rojas, who is based in Calí, Colombia:

Greetings everyone.

I'm happy to inform that the Civic Strike in Buenaventura has reached an agreement with the national government and the strike has been suspended.

This is a major and historical moment not only for the people in Buenaventura but for Black movement and people in Colombia. The strike demonstrated to racist Colombians and Colombian government that for years have been indifferent to the suffering of centuries of racism, exclusion, abject poverty and state sanctioned and non-state violence, that Black people had reached a point where no more would be tolerated.

The agreement has four important components:

1. The creation of a special autonomous fund with resources that are consider patrimony of the people in Buenaventura, coming from 50% of the taxes from the business and companies that profit from activities related to the port, plus $76 million dollars that the government will raise from credits with international banks, regulated by a law that should be signed in a month.

2. A initial investment of COP$1.500 billions to address the immediate needs for basic infrastructure for water, health and sanitation services in rural and urban areas.

3. An integrated development plan for the city that includes certain institutional reforms and effective community participation with objective to make of Buenaventura a port for the people and not simply for profit.

4. The proper investigations and penalization for the abuses and human rights violations committed by state forces, guaranties for those who has been criminalized and ensuring security and protection for the many leaders that guided the 22 days of peaceful, organized and successful struggle.

In the name of the people in resistance in Buenaventura, in the name of the Black Communities' Process in Colombia (PCN) and me, thank you for your unconditional fraternal solidarity. Your participation helped to put the pressure and ensure that an action that main stream media was eager to minimize and ignore got international attention, interest and support.

Although it has been a historic victory, this is not the end. These agreements can be easily ignored by the Colombian government. Also, some in government and in civil society have condemned the Buenaventura leaders for the significant loss of money that resulted from the strike. We certainly expect that for those individuals, many connected to the paramilitary elements that are still present in our communities, that this expression by the people will not be forgotten.  That is in many ways the Colombian way.  But we will not be deterred. With your help, we will continue to struggle for self-determination for ourselves, but also on behalf of all who are resisting oppression and struggling for new societies.

Things you can do now:

- Issue a statement in support of the people of in Buenaventura. Recognize them for their strength and courage, but also the level of political clarity and organization that made the strike successful.

- Continue condemning the violent repression and violations that were committed by the state forces and ask Colombian authorities to ensure proper investigation and penalization of the ESMAD as whole. There is not point on looking for individuals, the ESMAD as part of police institution committed serious violations of human rights and humanitarian provision, abusing its responsibility to provide security and instead creating a war-like situation against unarmed civilians, particularly in neighborhoods at night when people was sleeping. Reports from the Strike's human rights committee counted 209 children severely affected by tear gas, and still counting.

- Condemn the negligent response of president Juan Manuel Santos who could have controlled the ESMAD excesses. Remind him of his duty as a Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of a peace-building process that the whole world is watching.

- We will still be in need for translations and organizing brief reports on writing, audio and video. There are a number of people, including me, that are available for interviews in Spanish and English. Much still needs to be said about the Buenaventura strike.

- Consider organizing visits to Buenaventura for monitoring purposes, and stay informed about the developments of the agreement.

- I will be in the United States, mostly in the south from June 16 to July 4. Consider organizing conversations with your community, radio talks or any other opportunity to educate people about the struggle in Colombia. I will be happy to accommodate to the best of my possibilities while there. If you would like to bring me to your community, please send a message to info@blackallianceforpeace.com

- If possible, those with the knowledge, help us to thank the Orishas for protecting and guiding the people and leaders in Buenaventura, and pray for their safety.

This is a time for moving from fraternal solidarity to broader movement building with common agendas for the liberation and self-determination of Black people. We are one people. My struggle is your struggle.

Thank you very much from our hearts.

The struggle continues.

Charo Mina-Rojas, Proceso de Comunidades Negras

Afro-Colombian Representative to Update International Community on Massive Black Resistance Movement in Colombia

CALI, Colombia—Over the last week Black organizations in Colombian have been engaged in a massive “civic strike” and resistance. The strike and ongoing mobilizations in Buenaventura, the country’s main port city, and the department of Choco was fueled by the ongoing human rights crisis that includes continued violence by paramilitary forces directed at black organizers and communities, lack of basis governmental services such as an uninterrupted supply of water, inadequate housing, forced displacement, police brutality and land thefts. 

Buenaventura was shut down along with its port resulting in the loss of millions of pesos for the government. Instead of dialog with the people, the response from the government was to unleash ESMAD (National Security Forces) in an effort to open up the port and suppress the mobilizations that have seen tens of thousands take to the streets in Buenaventura and in Choco.

Now that the peaceful mobilizations are being violently repressed by the state, representatives of various black organizations including the Afro-Colombian National Council of Peace are calling on the international community to call for an end to the repression and a dialog with the communities to address the demands of the people.

Charo Mina-Rojas, a member of the national leadership and international coordinator of the Black Community Process and Afro-Colombian National Council of Peace as well as a member of the Ethnic Commission is available to discuss the situation in Colombia.

According to Charo Mina-Rojas, “it is important for the international community to understand, and especially the black communities of the U.S. because of the support the Colombian government receives from the U.S., that the peace process touted by Colombian President Juan Santos in his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump has not resulted in peace or security for Black people in Colombia.  

For more information see: https://afrocolombian.org/ - https://blackallianceforpeace.com/
###

Press Availability

Contact: Charo Mina-Rojas

57 314 370 8931

charominarojas@gmail.com

@AfroColombians

Peaceful Strikers Are Still Being Attacked by Armed Police in Buenaventura, Colombia, But the People Won't Give Up!

Written by BAP member Esther Ojulari:

“I know you’re fighting a just cause…We go all round the country and we see people fighting just causes all the time…But this is our job…our role here is to attack, so that’s what we do.”

These were the words my friend was told when he engaged in conversation the other night with an agent of the ESMAD (Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron) on the streets of Buenaventura, Colombia, in the context of the ongoing civic strike.

The mainly Afro-descendant and indigenous community of Buenaventura on the Pacific Coast of Colombia has been on a civic strike now for 16 days. 16 days in which business, banks, shops and schools have been closed down and taxis and buses have stopped working to demand that the national government fulfils is basic human rights obligations to its citizens.   

The demands of the strike are clear. Due to the desperate human rights situation which the community faces in Buenaventura, the Strike Committee called for the National Government to adopt a State of Social, Economic and Ecological Emergency in accordance with article 215 of the 1991 Colombian Constitution.  This declaration would commit the government to providing within 30 days (90 days with extension) sufficient funds to address urgent issues in the city; basic and fundamental human rights which are seriously lacking, such as clean drinking water, a hospital with tertiary level health care, adequate sewage systems, quality and culturally relevant education institutions, and reparations for victims of violence, conflict and injustice. The Civic Strike Committee has been in and out of talks with the government for two weeks and the government has so far refused to meet the demands of the strikers.

Meanwhile day after day up to 200,000 strikers have taken to the streets marching or congregating in collective meeting points along the main Avenida 6o  (6th Avenue) and the Via Alterna Interna  (ring road) which both lead from the outskirts of Buenaventura to the city centre, and Colombia’s most important international port.  The strikers protest at the injustice of neoliberal economic policies which leave a city of over 500,000 people without basic public services, infrastructure and human rights, while the profits from tens of billions of dollars of imports and exports each year line the pockets of private owners.  

The meeting points, consisting of open-air tents and sound systems, in which strikers peacefully resist this economic model, though cultural traditions of music, singing, dancing, storytelling, banging pots and pans and chanting for basic human rights, have a another function; preventing the cargo trucks, from entering and leaving the city. This is a historical and monumental form of resistance, not only to Colombia’s economic model, but to the wider global economic system, as a small group of determined protestors block one of the most strategic international ports for trade between Latin America and Asia.  The response from the state has been has been violent, brutal and repressive.

Since the 19th March the ESDMAD have been present in the city, and backed up by the police, military and undercover police operations, has rained down on strikers firing not only tear gas but on several occasions fire arms. Tear gas has repeatedly been fired at residential areas and in particular into the most vulnerable communities where it easily enters into Buenaventura’s traditional casas de palafitos (wooden houses on stilts) causing asphyxiation for babies and young children, many of whom have been rushed to the clinic on the backs of motorbikes in the early house of the mornings. Night after night the ESMAD has torn down meeting points to make way for the cargo trucks that enter and leave the city just before dawn.

Last night was a particularly bad night. We arrived at the Sabrosuras meeting point in El Dorado barrio shortly before midnight after reports of earlier attacks by the ESMAD. As we arrived we were greeted by at least 150 strikers, men, women, and children, chatting, drinking coffee, singing along to music. All was quiet for a couple of hours, but then at around 2am we got news from a meeting point further along the road that the ESMAD were on their way back.

Groups of young strikers prepared to defend themselves and the meeting point, committed to preventing the trucks from passing. They strengthen the makeshift road blocks of tree branches, tires and planks of wood, and set up shields made from billboards several hundred metres from the official meeting point were people of all ages were still gathered. From our vantage point we could see the public security forces slowly advancing, first a battering tank to take out the road blocks, then an ESMAD tank followed by ESMAD agents on foot, and behind them several policemen on motorbikes and more tanks, trucks and cars.  It felt like an army had been sent to overpower a couple of hundred unarmed protestors, with nothing but stones for self-defence.  

The first encounter was brief, the battering tank took out the road blocks in a matter of seconds and the ESMAD began firing tear gas scattering the protestors into the nearby streets. The convoy thundered on, creaking and moaning under the weight of so metal armour, easily reaching and passing the tents of the meeting point.  For a short time after they passed and continued down the road there was relative silence as protestors wearily made their way back to the main road. Then more ESMAD trucks and agents arrived and a two-hour confrontation ensued between ESMAD and a hundred or so mainly young people.

When the attack finally calmed down, the dust settled and most of the protestors had been scattered the cavalry arrived.  The raison d'être for all this violence. First an ESMAD tank, then police cars, then a line of 20 or so police on bikes ceremoniously ushered a procession of no less than 50 cargo trucks into the city. One after one the trucks thundered by as outraged bystanders shouted angrily at the drivers and ESMAD agents point blank shot tear gas at anyone who looked like they might try to stop the neoliberal caravan of profit as it made its way to the port.

The ESMAD hung around well after the trucks had passed through, still shooting the odd tear gas canister, revealing their immaturity as they hid behind walls, clearly enjoying playing at war while the city’s residents walked the streets attempting to go about their morning activities in peace.  Except it wasn’t a game and the scene really resembled one of occupation and war.  When the ESMAD finally moved out strikers and bystanders gathered on the sidewalks to mockingly cheer and clap the national heroes. The agents responded with equal scorn, taunting the crowds, laughing and putting their thumbs in the air.

The confrontations at El Dorado and Independencia barrios didn’t end there, they continued well into the morning, even as the Civic Strike Committee organised and planned for the day’s cultural activity, a march from El Dorado and other meeting towards the Isla de la Paz barrio located near the Via Alterna Interna.

Yes. Last night was a particularly bad night. There were numerous injuries from tear gas and a further six fire arms injuries confirmed so far.  Evidence was gathered and shared by strikers of empty tear gas canisters, bullets from army rifles, photos of armed, plain clothed officers in the crowds and videos of the ESMAD advancing and firing tear gas at the unarmed strikers and at the houses in the nearby streets. The voice of one young woman carried across the wind as she called from a balcony in a building engulfed with tear gas a few streets away, repeating over and over “murderers, murderers, you are killing us, murderers.”

As the strikes entered their 16th day in Buenaventura, and the Committee prepared for the arrival of government ministers this morning to present their reformed demands, the call they have been making for weeks for the government to remove the ESMAD forces and end the violence on the streets and in the communities of Buenaventura resonated more strongly than ever. For how can we negotiate agreements in the middle of a war? The continued presence of the ESMAD, who in their own words, are here to “attack,” has made it impossible to negotiate a truly peaceful end to the strike, and demonstrates that the government has little intention of respecting the demands and rights of the community and is farm more concerned about protecting the private interests of the port.

Nevertheless, in the face of an indifferent government the people of Buenaventura have stayed strong and committed to this people-centred human rights and political process. As the dialogues commenced in the afternoon of the 16th day, the community of Buenaventura continued to assert their right to march, strike and protest in the streets, to demand their fundamental human rights and to chant day after day and night after night that “el pueblo no se rinde carajo!” the people won’t give up!