Black Alliance for Peace’s U.S. Out of Africa Network Deplores Plans to Expand U.S. Drone Atrocities in West Africa

Black Alliance for Peace’s U.S. Out of Africa Network Deplores Plans to Expand U.S. Drone Atrocities in West Africa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     

Media Contact

communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) opposes in the strongest terms the U.S. plans, in collusion with West Africa’s comprador class, to further violate Africa’s sovereignty and right to self determination in the form of three new military drone bases in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin. Further, we condemn the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) for not publicly renouncing this proposal in particular, and the existence of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in general. Their silence around this development confirms their complicity and betrayal of Pan-Africanism and the interests of the African masses struggling against the ravages of neo-colonialism.

More U.S. drone bases in Africa spell more violence, vicious anonymity, and "collateral damage" from drone assassinations. It spells enhanced surveillance capabilities for imperialism to use against any threat to the neocolonial order. U.S. maneuvering to expand its already massive military drone operations is consistent with the U.S. incessant drive to wage war globally and its militarization of the planet. U.S. drone and air strikes in Africa have primarily been in Libya and Somalia with the numbers of confirmed civilian deaths from drones as high as 3,200 in these two countries, and studies have shown these conditions “have inadvertently aided the growth of terrorist groups in the region.” This is what the U.S. proposes now for West Africa.

There are clear and disturbing geostrategic implications regarding the countries they have chosen for these U.S. drone bases. The bases will form a border along the three countries of the Alliance of Sahel States – Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger – countries which have been adopting an anti-imperialist disposition. In fact, Burkina Faso’s entire southern flank would be surrounded by these U.S. drone bases. The last two administrations as well as members of Congress have clearly stated in policy declarations and legislation that the U.S.' primary objective in Africa is to counteract the presence and influence of China and Russia in order to maintain its full spectrum dominance of all regions of the world. This is also consistent with the Global Fragility Act that states the Biden administration’s first sites of focus would be Haiti, Libya, and "West African coastal states," where the U.S. seeks to place the drone bases.

The bases will not be there to end so-called terrorism of extremists in Africa; they will be there for the U.S. to terrorize the region. It is folly to believe that the settler criminals who rule the U.S. state, who can justify the genocidal assault on Gaza, and who systematically murder, sanction, and attack nations globally to maintain white supremacy and global capitalism, are spending hundreds of millions to “fight terrorism” in Africa.

Rather than “an urgent effort to stop the spread of al Qaeda and Islamic State in the region,” according to American and African officials, the USOAN contends that this is more likely a contingency plan to preserve drone capabilities in the event of losing their $110 million U.S. drone base in Agadez, Niger. Niger has also recently temporarily suspended the granting of new mining licenses and ordered an audit of the sector, a move that would invariably raise the eyebrows of the U.S.-EU-NATO axis of domination, concerned over the future of exploitative access to the mineral resources there, such as uranium. Resource sovereignty runs counter to the true colonialist objectives of U.S. foreign policy.

BAP and the USOAN call on all who support African sovereignty to denounce the U.S.’ latest imperialist moves in Western Africa as well as the neocolonial African governments and collaborators like the Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo who, face-to-face with U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken, openly begged for the U.S. to violate the sovereignty of the countries in the Alliance of Sahel States.

BAP and the USOAN will continue to expose the puppets of neocolonialism in Africa and the misleaders masquerading as Black representatives in the legislative branches of the U.S. setter state. We maintain that the U.S. and its Western Europe progenitors are the root cause and primary sustenance for the poverty, displacement, despair, and violence in Africa, born from decades of colonialist plunder.

 #ShutDownAFRICOM!

#USOutofAfrica!

Banner photo: 3 U.S. drones docked on an airfield in Asia. Courtesy didpress.com

NYT: Black Pastors Pressure Biden to Call for a Cease-Fire in Gaza

Black Pastors Pressure Biden to Call for a Cease-Fire in Gaza

Black congregants’ dismay at President Biden’s posture on the war could imperil his re-election bid.

By Maya King - Reporting from Atlanta and Columbia, S.C.

Jan. 28, 2024

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth month, a coalition of Black faith leaders is pressuring the Biden administration to push for a cease-fire — a campaign spurred in part by their parishioners, who are increasingly distressed by the suffering of Palestinians and critical of the president’s response to it.

More than 1,000 Black pastors representing hundreds of thousands of congregants nationwide have issued the demand. In sit-down meetings with White House officials, and through open letters and advertisements, ministers have made a moral case for President Biden and his administration to press Israel to stop its offensive operations in Gaza, which have killed thousands of civilians. They are also calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas and an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

…Full article con’t

International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine Welcomes Today’s ICJ Order; Demands its Implementation

****IMMEDIATE RELEASE****

International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine Welcomes Today’s ICJ Order; Demands its Implementation

The ICGSP encourages governments and global social movements to demand that provisional measures are enforced immediately

In its provisional ruling issued today on the South African Genocide Convention case against Israel, the International Court of Justice (ICJ—also known as the World Court) demanded Israel stop killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure and medical facilities; prevent and punish incitement to genocide by its top officials; and permit the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP) applauds the Court’s Order as a crucial first step toward forcing Israel and its primary sponsor and strongest political ally—the United States—to end the months-long brutal assault on Gaza, and the decades-long denial to Palestinians of their rights to self-determination and return. 

However, the ICSGP also recognizes that Israeli and U.S. government officials have made repeated official declarations in the past week making clear their plan to ignore the ICJ’s legally binding ruling and rejecting the Court’s process as illegitimate, and that the U.S. has been threatening world governments with sanctions and war—a promise it is making good on already by bombing Yemen—for opposing the ongoing genocide. The ICSGP also recognizes that numerous powerful state allies of the U.S. and Israel, including Germany and Canada, have already made clear their intent to back Israel against an ICJ finding of genocide. The dangerous rejection by the United States, Israel and their allies of this process—which was set up through the United Nations precisely to prevent genocide—undermines the legitimacy of that institution and in particular the U.N. Security Council, where the U.S. has long used its veto power as a tool to promote war and genocide. The ICSGP calls upon social movements to demand that world governments uphold international law and protect the integrity of the United Nations by ensuring that the ICJ’s provisional measures are immediately enforced, and to hold Israeli war criminals and their powerful U.S. accomplices accountable for genocide.

The ICSGP stands in full solidarity with its Palestinian coalition members, who have emphasized in their own statements today the need for governments and social movements around the world to double down in their efforts to bring the ongoing genocide in Gaza to an end. Dr. Luqa AbuFarah, North America Coordinator for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), an ICSGP member organization, states:

“It's clear we have a moral obligation to take action and end our government's complicity with Israel's Gaza genocide. We must have the courage to speak out and take action to advance the struggle for justice. We must end US military funding to Israel which at $3.8 billion USD a year could instead provide more than 450,000 households with public housing for a year or pay for 41,490 elementary school teachers. I also hope that every person outraged with the blatant disregard for Palestinian life will join and escalate our BDS Campaigns and make sure companies know that complicity with Israeli apartheid and genocide is unacceptable. We must take action now more than ever!”

ICSGP, together with numerous legal and human rights organizations including coalition members The PAL Commission on War Crimes and The Global Legal Alliance for Palestine, held press conferences in New York and Chicago following the Court’s Order on the request for the indication of provisional measures this morning, expressing gratitude to South Africa for its steadfast support, and calling on all organizations and countries to support South Africa's legal actions against the Israeli military campaign.

Lamis Deek, cofounder the PAL Commission on War Crimes and convener of the Global Legal Alliance for Palestine, states:

“This historic decision changes international and domestic approaches—military, legal, and political—to stopping the genocide in Palestine. This verdict profoundly reshapes the geopolitical and legal topography, regardless of whether Israel complies or not. Following the Court's decision we must issue calls on state parties to the ICJ and the Genocide Convention as regards their compliance obligations, and address our legal colleagues and our communities regarding the next steps we think will be most critical on the heels of this decision.

The brutal Israeli genocide and torture in Gaza, alongside the targeted assassinations, destruction of civilian infrastructure including all of Gaza’s hospitals and universities, blocking of aid, and use of starvation and spread of disease as a war tactic, constitute a grotesque series of the highest war crimes. We commend the Court’s positive decision. The question now is how to deal with the anticipated US-Israeli obstruction of that decision.”

Monisha Rios, president of SOLI PR, an international network of Puerto Ricans focused on growing solidarity with the Puerto Rican struggle for independence and ICSGP member organization, states: 

“As Puerto Ricans directly involved in the struggle against U.S.-led settler colonial violence, land grabs and the ongoing neoliberal assault, we have a special obligation to stand in firm, unwavering solidarity with our Palestinian cousins. Not only does the Zionist entity’s genocidal regime in Palestine owe its existence as such to U.S. financial and political backing since its inception, Israel has also directly contributed with military technologies, weapons and police training to the violent repression of peoples fighting for self-determination against the U.S. and its puppet regimes around the world, and of Indigenous Peoples and descendants of enslaved African Peoples subject to structural apartheid within the continental United States. Israeli Zionists themselves have recognized the parallels between Palestine and Puerto Rico, for example with the Minister of Heritage—who publicly called for using a nuclear bomb in Gaza—recently calling for a “Puerto Rican” solution to Palestine. The South African Case at the World Court, and the Court’s decision this morning provide Puerto Ricans and colonized peoples around the world a unique opportunity—in recognizing our common struggle and joining together to fight against Zionist fascism, we have tremendous power to both stop the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, and to contribute to our own liberation by shifting the balance of global power away from the U.S. and toward the Global South.”

The ICSGP calls upon the over 2,000 organizational signatories to its original letter, and to social movements everywhere, to hold the profiteers and promoters of the Zionist genocide to account through concrete actions of boycott, divestment, and sanctions; to mobilize to demand the immediate enforcement of the ICJ’s Order of Provisional Measures and denounce accomplices to the genocide; and to continue to pressure all state parties to the Genocide Convention to issue Declarations of Intervention in support of the South African case at the ICJ.

Previous ICSGP press statements are available from January 17, January 8 and January 3, 2024.

Banner photo: Proceedings of the ICJ when ordering Israel to stop killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure and medical facilities ( courtesy AP /Patrick Post).

International Coalition Applauds South Africa; Denounces Countries Supporting Israel’s Crimes

****IMMEDIATE RELEASE****

International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine Applauds South African Legal Team; Denounces United States, United Kingdom and Germany for Supporting Israel’s Crimes

The ICGSP calls for three days of action this month: Stop the war on Yemen, support South Africa's case before the ICJ and oppose Germany siding with genocidaires.

CONTACTS:

• Netfa Freeman, Black Alliance for Peace, netfa@blackallianceforpeace.com, +1 301 938-4628

• Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Progressive International, varsha.gandikota@gmail.com, +91 98735 38708

• Azhar Sakoor, Palestine Solidarity Alliance Youth League in South Africa, azhar@psayl.co.za, +27 81 046 7428

Last week, member groups of the International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP) organized activities around the world, including press conferences at The Hague and outside various South African consulates and embassies, to highlight and support the South African legal team as they presented their evidence of the state of Israel’s acts of genocide against Palestinians to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on January 11.

Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, who was at The Hague representing Progressive International, one of the ICSGP’s founding organizations, stated:

“Every single person who witnessed the hearing was left in no doubt that we were reading the most frightening document of our time and hearing evidence of the most gruesome, illegal, and genocidal assault.

In bringing this case to The Hague, South Africa has issued a resounding call to the Global South to break with the Zionist project and its inextricable links to the history of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism.

This is not only Israel on trial. It is the ICJ on trial. It is a test of the humanity of the world and whether the institutions we’ve built to protect it — today, this court in The Hague — withstand the test of Western impunity.”

The ICSGP continues to expand with nearly 2,000 signatory organizations from 100 countries on the initial letter calling for mobilization in defense of South Africa’s strong case for genocide. Member organizations are working to press their governments to submit Declarations of Intervention to the ICJ in support of emergency provisional measures on Israel to stop the murder, maiming, starvation and displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and Occupied Territories in the West Bank. At present, countries that have publicly supported South Africa’s case include Algeria, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Comoros, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Maldives, Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Yemen and the Organization of Islamic Countries, which represents 57 nations.

The full text of the letter and an updated list of signers can be found here: https://bit.ly/Genocide_Convention_Letter Endorsements are still being accepted.

Only three nations have publicly denied that Israel is committing genocide, the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, despite the fact that the world is watching events happen in real time on social media and on outlets that have reporters on the ground. The state of Israel has tried to hide their crimes by targeting and murdering over 100 members of the media in Gaza, which is another violation of international law.

The US, UK and Germany have taken direct actions to stop support for the Palestinian liberation struggle. On January 11, the same day that South Africa presented its evidence at The Hague, the US and UK conducted 73 bombing raids on Yemen killing five people and injuring six. President Biden stated that the bombing is in retaliation for Yemen’s blockade of ships traveling through the Red Sea on their way to Israel. Yemenis view their actions as an obligation as signatories to the Genocide Convention to impose measures to stop Israel’s genocide. The illegal escalation of military aggression in Yemen by the US and UK adds fuel to the fire of a broader regional conflict.

In November, 2023, Germany started banning most demonstrations in support of Palestine. Despite that, thousands of people have taken to the streets across the country in defiance of the ban and in solidarity with Palestine. Hage Geingob, the President of Namibia, which was a victim of German genocide between 1904 and 1908, responded to Germany’s decision in a statement, writing, “Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Convention against genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza.”

Netfa Freeman, who is the Black Alliance for Peace African Team coordinator, said, “The position of Germany represents the moral confusion and hypocrisy of the current leadership in that state. But even more ominously, for a state that still has not completely atoned for its genocidal campaign against the people of Namibia, the German position in support of genocide in Palestine reaffirms the white supremacist core of German thought that fed the Nazi war machine. For the Nazis and the current leadership of Germany, African and Palestinian lives still don’t matter! “

Attorney Azhar Sakoor, Executive with the Palestine Solidarity Alliance Youth League in South Africa, a member organization of the ICSGP, states:

“We support the call for three days of action this month – calling to stop the war on Yemen, support South Africa’s case before the ICJ and oppose Germany siding with genocidaires.

In South Africa, the parallels between the history of South African Apartheid and the current occupation of Palestine by Israel can be clearly seen.

As South Africans, we felt incredibly proud to see our government hold Israel accountable at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), despite Israel being supported by world ‘superpowers’. South Africa called out current genocide in Gaza, acknowledged Israeli attacks in the West Bank, and also recognized the the Nakba. The significance of this cannot be underplayed.

From the case presented by South Africa at the ICJ, it is clear that not only has Israel ignored international law, they are also committing genocide.

It is no surprise to see countries like the USA, UK and Germany are openly supporting Israeli genocide, given their history as colonizers and occupiers. They continue to attempt to occupy the world, not by taking land, but by forcing their ideologies onto indigenous people across the world.

With the USA and UK attacking Yemen (one of the few countries actively trying to fight for Palestinian rights), we see the hypocrisy of the West, caring more for shipping lanes than for human life. We call for an end to the barbaric attacks of the USA and UK on Yemen and an end to the Israeli Genocide in Palestine.”

At the request of major Palestinian organizations and coalitions, the ICSGP has issued a call for three days of action, starting with an international day of action opposing the war against Yemen this Friday, January 19. The following week, on January 24, as we await the decision by the ICJ, there will be a day of action focused on supporting South Africa’s case and taking action to stop the genocide. On January 31, actions are being planned to protest Germany for its role in enabling the state of Israel to commit acts of genocide with impunity.

Previous ICSGP press statements are available from January 8 and January 3, 2024.

Banner photo: Protestors wave Palestinian flags during a demonstration march outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. ( courtesy AP /Patrick Post).

On this Human Rights Day, Let Us Remember that the U.S. is the Greatest Violator of Human Rights in the World

On this Human Rights Day, Let Us Remember that the U.S. is the Greatest Violator of Human Rights in the World

As the international community celebrates December 10th as International Human Rights Day, it is imperative that the world also affirm that violators of the fundamental human rights of peoples and nations will be held accountable.

From the war in Ukraine to mass incarceration of Black, Latino and Native Peoples in the U.S. to Obama’s ongoing war in Yemen to murderous economic sanctions, coups, assassinations, war and abandonment of Afghanistan, international arms sales, commodification of COVID vaccines, illegal military occupations in Syria and Iraq, the pending invasion of Haiti and the resource wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that have cost over six million lives. The one force behind all of this death and destruction is the United States’ culture of death. This culture is the same one that allowed millions – disproportionately working class, African, and racialized peoples – to die from COVID-19 with little support, and that fuels the wider U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination globally, fundamentally opposed to the fulfillment of true democracy and human rights.

The current genocide in Gaza and the destruction of Palestinian society and culture perpetuated by the Zionist state of Israel - in full view of the world - with the full support of the United States of America, demonstrates once again what Dr. Martin Luther King pointed out more than fifty years ago:  the U.S. continues to be the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet. The racist right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu could not carry out its genocidal policies in Gaza without the material and political support from the U.S.

Therefore, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) calls on the international community to demonstrate that it will not allow the normalization of fascist genocidal violence that systematically destroys the credibility of the human rights idea, as well as the structures that are, theoretically, supposed to protect fundamental human rights.

The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1674 on April 28, 2006 that "reaffirmed” decisions from the World Summit of the previous year, where the concept of humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity was adopted. This resolution was framed as a strengthening of international mechanisms for ensuring that the interlinking principles of the United Nations Charter, peace, security, international development - but especially human rights - would be protected. 

The resolution commits the Security Council to act when civilian populations are being subjected to acts that constitute genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. 

The U.S. veto of the December 8, 2023 UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire in order to address the humanitarian crisis impacting the occupied Palestinian population being subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide, placed the U.S. in opposition to the very principles of the UN Charter and the international consensus on human rights.  

The people of the world are asking: where is the “humanitarian intervention” and “responsibility to protect” for Palestinians? The sacrifice of the people of Gaza dramatically exposes the cynicism, opportunism, and vacuousness of the Western human rights rhetoric. It is now absolutely clear that so-called humanitarian intervention to protect human rights only occurs when it is in the interests of white Western imperialism. 

The egregious crimes in Gaza should result in the U.S. and Israel being expelled from the United Nations at minimum. But beyond that, charges should be brought against the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister and U.S. President Joe Biden along with his Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with immediate sanctions imposed on other Israeli and U.S. officials involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza. As a peace and human rights organization, we further call on all states to exercise the concept of Universal Jurisdiction to arrest and prosecute those named individuals. 

Yet, we do not see that kind of definitive action being executed by the states that make up the United Nations. 

This is also why on this Human Rights Day, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) reasserts its commitment to the Black radical People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHRs) framework as an alternative to the individualistic, legalistic, conservative and state-centered liberal framework. For BAP, human rights are political, emanating from the demands of the people, collectively committed to social justice, authentic democracy, and self-determination.

As Ajamu Baraka, BAP’s Coordinating Committee Chairperson and leading theorist on PCHRs points out: 

“The idea that Western colonial/capitalist states were defenders of human rights struck many in the colonized South as either delusional or an affirmation that in the eyes of the West they were not human. For the colonized and racialized who were burned alive, tortured, and murdered by these champions of human rights, it was understood that whatever human rights were supposed to be they did not include the racialized and colonized peoples of the world.” 

And what are People(s)-Centered Human Rights?  

PCHRs proceeds from the assumption that the genesis of the assaults on human dignity at the core of human-rights violations is located in the ongoing structural relationships of colonial-capitalist oppression. Therefore, the PCHRs framework does not pretend to be non-political. It is a political project in the service of Africans, as well as the colonized working classes, peasants, and socially oppressed. It names the enemies of freedom: the Western white-supremacist, colonial-capitalist patriarchy.

This conception and practice of human rights is the only way for the human rights idea to have any relevance to oppressed nations, peoples, and even states victimized by the globalized colonial/capitalist world order.  

From this approach, human rights becomes a weapon for the oppressed and provides a vision of the new societies that must be constructed in order for fundamental human rights - the right to food, housing, health, education, the means to earn a living, leisure, and the rights of mother-earth - to be realized.

A fundamental right within the People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework is the collective right of the oppressed to fight their oppressor. This is the right being exercised by the Palestinian resistance against the illegitimate Israeli fascist apartheid occupation state.

Peace is also a fundamental PCHR. BAP’s call to support the demand to make the “Americas” a Zone of Peace was launched with this in mind. On this Human Rights Day, we say that the right of peoples and nations to self-determination in our region must be absolute to counter the hegemonic plans of the human rights monstrosity to the North – the United States of America where one of its military leaders, SOUTHCOM commander, Laura Richardson argues with a straight face why the racist, imperialist Monroe Doctrine is still applicable. 

As a strategic priority, BAP will launch its “North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights” under the direction of Ajamu Baraka on the commemoration of the assassination  of Malcolm X on February 21, 2024. The objective of the project is to liberate and decolonize human rights, grounding its creation, protections and implementation within the peoples of the world struggling for radical social change. In the meantime, BAP will continue to demand that the state-centered human rights regime take seriously its own mechanisms and principles and end the impunity for outlaw states like the U.S. and Israel.

Banner photo: Rohingya refugees including women and children cross from Myanmar into Bangladesh (courtesy UNICEF / LeMoyne).

Baltimore & Israel: A Global Gang of Colonizers

Baltimore & Israel

A Global Gang of Colonizers

From Haiti to Puerto Rico and from the Congo to Baltimore, African (Black) people suffer from colonialism. Current atrocities happening to the people of Gaza and the West Bank clearly show the colonial reality of life and death in Palestine. What we see daily in Palestine is a project to completely replace the indigenous population with a settler population. The attempt to exterminate the Palestinians is being carried through collusion between Israel, the U.S, the European Union, and all western powers. This is nothing less than a genocidal campaign to occupy Gaza, and slaughter Palestinians trapped in the world’s largest open air prison. Clearly  Palestine is a colony born of a Zionist imperialist project. What is not so clear are the ways that Zionism extends into African (Black) communities like Baltimore.

Zionism is a political movement with a racist western imperialist ideology. The Zionist movement was initiated with an 1895 pamphlet entitled Der Judenstaat written by an atheist Jew named Theodor Herzl. Herzl was a Jewish Austro-Hungarian journalist and political activist, known as the father of the Zionist movement. Herzl’s objective was to obtain a land base that could be utilized as a “Jewish” state with political and economic power.  In 1897, Herzl convened the first Zionist conference in Switzerland to launch the official program of Zionism, the Basel program. By 1917, the global Zionist campaign manifested in Switzerland as the Balfour declaration, named for the British Secretary of State for foreign affairs, Arthur Balfour. This declaration designated Palestine as the place for Jewish people to escape anti-Jewish fascism rising across the European continent.  

The establishment of the Zionist colonial state in Palestine was championed by Britain after World War II. The Zionist movement co-opted Judaism and used it to justify the theft of Palestine from the Palestinians. By 1948, the occupation of Palestine by Western European Jews had become solidified with the Nakba (the great catastrophe). During the Nakba, 750,000 Palestinians were violently removed from their lands and homes. Today, large segments of Palestinians are displaced in a global diaspora (more Palestinians live in Jordan than Jordanians). Palestinians who remain are relegated to specific territories within occupied Palestine; primarily the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip. These Palestinians are prisoners in their own land, living in the racist, settler colonial, murderous apartheid state of Israel.

USA & Israel: Policing the World

Sharing Police Tactics Between the U.S. and Israel

In Gaza, Palestinians are subject to over policing, constant surveillance, indiscriminate beating, incarceration, unjust killings, and unusable water. Baltimore and other U.S cities align themselves with these practices, they fund the Israeli occupation by paying Israelis to train the Baltimore Police Department (BPD). The Original Americans (Indians) are locked on reservations. They are subject to over policing, constant surveillance, indiscriminate beating, incarceration, unjust killings, and unusable water. They are directly policed by the FBI and live the legacy of millions slaughtered by this settler colony called the United States of America. Reservation is another word for Open Air Prison, Concentration Camp, Gaza or Bantu Stand. It is all the same thing.

Policing in the U.S. has a history of racial bias against the colonized people within its borders. Anti-Black racism in this country still reigns in local, state and federal institutions. Like the obscene incarceration rates of the Palestinians, the U.S. prison industrial complex incarcerates African (Black) people at over five times the rate of white people. Today, militarized state violence practiced by the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) on the people of Baltimore is the the Deadly Exchange Program, which brings together ICE, FBI, police, border control and Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), to share and promote discriminatory and repressive tactics and policies in both countries. Thousands of cops participate in security conferences and workshops with Israeli law enforcement, the IOF, and security officials in the U.S. Baltimore law enforcement officials, along with hundreds of others from Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington state, as well as the DC Capitol police continue to travel to Israel for training. 

There is a solid partnership between the U.S. and Israeli governments to exchange methods of state violence and control over civilians including mass surveillance, racial profiling, and suppression of protest and dissent. Training through the Deadly Exchange Program places Baltimore police in the hands of racist systems that have racked up human rights violations for years. Last May, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates welcomed Israeli Police and thanked them for their annual police unity tour, with the promise to “strengthen” their “partnership.” 

Elijah Cummings Youth Program

Recruiting African Youth to Zionism

Baltimore City spends $8,959,736 each year in Israeli military efforts. But exchanges between Baltimore City and Israel also happen in less overt and more insidious ways with African (Black) youth. For the past 25 years, through the Elijah Cummings Youth Program founded by former Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), hundreds of African (Black) high school students in Baltimore travel to Tel Aviv to “bridge gaps between the Jewish and black communities” and create “open-minded future leaders.”

Since 1998, the program has funneled Baltimore youth into a two year fellowship, with the goal of strengthening the relationship between African (Black) people in Baltimore and the Baltimore Jewish community This three stage process includes “Leadership Development, The ‘Israel Experience’ (two summers inside of the occupying state of Israel), and Community Service.” 

For two summers, students are hosted by The Yemin Orde Youth Village, a youth village named after the ‘father of the Israeli Occupation Forces,’ British Major General Orde Charles Wingate. At the end of the program, students return and meet with Zionist policy makers in the U.S. capitol, Maryland State House, and Baltimore City Hall (in addition to working within nonprofits, churches and synagogues in the city). The goal is to create the next generation of Africans that think anti-Zionism is equal to antisemitism and hatred for the Jews.

October 2023 marked 25 years of the Elijah Cummings Youth Program which is being continued, posthumously. For the recognition of the 25 years of this program, Maryland’s first Black Governor, Wes Moore, gave the keynote speech for the event aligning with the general sentiments expressed following the Al-Aqsa Flood, standing with “the right of Israel to exist,” dismissing the settler colonial foundations of Israel’s existence. This, ultimately, is the purpose of the youth program, to normalize conditions of settler colonialism for unsuspecting Black youth. 

The youth program does not teach students about the 75-year colonial occupation of Palestine and Gaza, imposed by intolerant, Zionist Israeli leaders. From the Nakba to the present day, the failure to teach the students in the program what has been done to Palestine is by design, in order to support Zionist propaganda—as the only true origin story of Palestine. This propaganda is used to legitimize  the theft of land, homes, assets, and basic human rights from the Palestinian people.

Settler Colonialism and Their Victims

People often ask why African (Black) people in Baltimore or the U.S, should concern themselves with Zionism and Palestine. The fact that the police and military who oppress both the people of Palestine and the people of Baltimore are collaborating should be enough to explain why we should be concerned. More importantly, Palestine is a settler colony just like the U.S, which has uprooted the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. Both the U.S (Baltimore) and Palestine (Gaza) are lands occupied by western Europeans claiming to flee religious oppression. In both cases their intent was to exterminate the native people and take their lands as their own. Furthermore, the Palestinans are prisoners in their own land. Africans in America have been stolen from our land and held captive in a foreign land (U.S). We have the same enemy and should fight side by side to defeat colonialism, settler colonialism, neo-colonialism, Zionism, capitalism and imperialism.These enemies are the global, white supremacist, capitalist, Axis of Domination. Africans and Palestinians have the same objectives and aspirations. We all want unity, freedom, dignity and self-determination. It is imperative that Zionism is smashed, from Baltimore to Palestine.

Banner photo: Israeli police forces arrest a Palestinian protester in Jerusalem (courtesy Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)

The Zone of Peace Campaign Calls for an Emergency Day of Action for Haitian Sovereignty

“The Zone of Peace Campaign Calls for an Emergency Day of Action for Haitian Sovereignty”

(Español abajo)

For Immediate Release     

Media Contact
press@blackallianceforpeace.com
(202) 643-1136

OCTOBER 12, 2023 – The leading organizations of the Campaign for a Zone of Peace in Our Americas have called for an Emergency Day of Action for Haitian Sovereignty today, October 12, 2023. In the lead up to this day, nearly 100 social and civic movements and organizations throughout the Americas and around the world came together to draft and sign on to a statement denouncing the approval of armed intervention into Haiti by the United Nations Security Council. This statement lays out a clear position against this intervention that is purporting to respond to issues of violence that are caused by past and ongoing imperialist aggression and policies. 

We call for a day of action – today October 12 – intentionally because it is significant throughout the Americas – notably the day has been reclaimed as “Day of Decolonization” in Bolivia and “Day of Indigenous, Black, and Popular Resistance” in Nicaragua. Given the impending intervention that infringement of Haitian sovereignty and the ongoing illegitimate rule of the Core Group-appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the peoples and organizations of the Americas must recognize the critical role of Haiti in the region and the global struggle against white supremacy, colonialism, and imperialism. We must reject this clear and ongoing violation of a Zone of Peace in the Caribbean and the Americas as a whole. While this will be a long struggle, we can unite locally and globally through solidarity actions in our neighborhoods, cities, and nations – with rallies, teach-ins, mobilizations, call-in campaigns, press conferences, and other actions. This includes a rally at the Kenyan embassy in Washington DC, starting at 12pm.

We also recognize that this day of action comes as the Palestinian Resistance have broken through the gates of the open air prison in Gaza and are fighting in their own struggle for self-determination, human dignity, and land back. We understand the imperialist and zionist aggressions in Haiti and Palestine are linked, and represent the racist violence and absolute contempt for human life that has been the cornerstone of the rise of European rule over the planet. We must act today for Haiti, tomorrow for Palestine, this month against AFRICOM, and forever for the oppressed, exploited, and colonized peoples of the world.

For Haiti, we call on all progressive forces around the Americas and around the globe to be vigilant, denounce this interventionist aggression, and mobilize against the imperialist misery that the US, NATO, Core Group – and their puppets in the governments of Kenya, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, and others –  are imposing on the people of Haiti.

Hands Off Haiti!
Haiti Will Be Free!

See here for a toolkit to support action: https://bit.ly/HaitiToolkitOct12

And here for an incomplete list of known, public solidarity actions and statements (updated regularly): https://bit.ly/HaitiSolidarityOct2023

"La Campaña Zona de Paz Convoca  un Día de Acción de Emergencia por la Soberanía Haitiana"

Para su publicación inmediata

Contacto de Medios
press@blackallianceforpeace.com
(202) 643-1136

12 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023 – Las principales organizaciones de la Campaña por una Zona de Paz en Nuestra América han convocado un Día de Acción de Emergencia por la Soberanía Haitiana hoy, 12 de octubre de 2024. En los días previos a este evento, cerca de 100 movimientos sociales y cívicos, y organizaciones de las Américas y de todo el mundo se unieron para redactar y firmar una declaración en la que denuncian la aprobación de la intervención armada en Haití por parte del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas. Esta declaración expone claramente una postura en contra de esta intervención, que pretende responder a problemas de violencia causados por la agresión imperialista pasada y continuas políticas.

Convocamos un día de acción, hoy, 12 de octubre, de manera intencionada, porque es significativo en toda América, especialmente en Bolivia, donde el día ha sido reivindicado como el "Día de la Descolonización," y en Nicaragua, como el "Día de la Resistencia Indígena, Negra y Popular." Dada la inminente intervención, que infringe la soberanía haitiana y el gobierno ilegítimo continuo del Primer Ministro Ariel Henry, designado por el Grupo Central, los pueblos y organizaciones de las Américas deben reconocer el papel crítico de Haití en la región y la lucha global contra la supremacía blanca, el colonialismo y el imperialismo. Debemos rechazar esta violación clara y continua de una Zona de Paz en el Caribe y en las Américas en su conjunto. Aunque esta será una larga lucha, podemos unirnos a nivel local y global a través de acciones de solidaridad en nuestros vecindarios, ciudades y naciones, con mítines, clases magistrales, movilizaciones, campañas de llamadas, conferencias de prensa y otras acciones. Esto incluye una movilización frente a la embajada de Kenia en Washington DC al mediodía.

También reconocemos que este día de acción coincide con el momento en que la Resistencia Palestina ha roto las puertas de la prisión al aire libre en Gaza y está luchando en su propia lucha por la autodeterminación, la dignidad humana y la recuperación de tierras. Comprendemos que las agresiones imperialistas y sionistas en Haití y Palestina están relacionadas y representan la violencia racista y el absoluto desprecio por la vida humana que ha sido la piedra angular del ascenso del dominio europeo sobre el planeta. Debemos actuar hoy por Haití, mañana por Palestina, este mes contra AFRICOM y siempre por los pueblos oprimidos, explotados y colonizados del mundo.

Por Haití, hacemos un llamado a todas las fuerzas progresistas de las Américas y de todo el mundo a estar alerta, denunciar esta agresión intervencionista y movilizarse contra la miseria imperialista que los Estados Unidos, la OTAN, el Core Group y sus títeres en los gobiernos de Kenia, Jamaica, las Bahamas, Antigua y Barbuda, Barbados y otros están imponiendo al pueblo de Haití.

¡Manos Fuera de Haití!
¡Haití Será Libre!

Para obtener una caja de herramientas de apoyo a la acción, haga clic aquí: https://bit.ly/HaitiToolkitOct12

Una lista incompleta de acciones y declaraciones de solidaridad conocidas (actualizada regularmente): https://bit.ly/HaitiSolidarityOct2023

The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Murderous Assault on Occupied Palestine

The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Murderous Assault on Occupied Palestine

 We say that a colonized people have a right to resist occupation and fight for self-determination by any means necessary!

The Black Alliance for Peace stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza and all Palestinians under occupation in the racist, apartheid settler state of Israel. We recognize the right of Palestine to exist and the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation. We call on African/Black people to remember our long tradition of solidarity with Palestine.

We condemn the monstrous and cowardly actions of the racist Zionist entity which is committing mass atrocities against the two million people who are locked in the open air prison of Gaza. As the crazed Zionists indiscriminately bomb civilians in Gaza, while characterizing Palestinians as “animals,” we are witnessing an international crime in real time - a genocide. This is a genocide that is fully supported and celebrated by other Western racist settler states - the morally depraved “international community.” 

The real world, that is the world beyond the 10% of the global population that is the “collective West,” is outraged by the systematic barbarism it is witnessing with the collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza. What is their crime? To rise up against their occupying power, to take the daily war that they have to endure as Israel murders and incarcerates their children, bombs their infrastructure, denies them medical care, cuts off their water and supplies – to take that war to the occupying power itself.

The Black Alliance for Peace condemns the barbarism of the illegal zionist settler-colonial, apartheid state. We fully support the Palestinian people’s right to fight against occupation, and we defend Palestinian calls for decolonization and their right to self-determination. Since there is currently no fair and just “international law” to support the Palestinian peoples, we will continue to call for the right of all peoples to struggle for national liberation, self-determination, and people(s)-centered human rights.

The Congressional Black Caucus in the U.S. congress, as well as most congressional representatives, including the phony “progressive caucus,” have abandoned the Palestinian people and given their support to Israeli apartheid.

But we remember the solidarity that Black people in the U.S. received from Palestinians in 2020 as they fought against the Israeli-trained police forces across the U.S. during the George Floyd protests. We also say that the attack on Gaza mirrors the pending attack on Haiti by the racist, Western colonialist forces. Both represent the racist violence and absolute contempt for human life that has been the cornerstone of the rise of European rule over the planet. The Black Alliance for Peace will not abandon the Palestinian people. Solidarity must be reciprocal. Our peoples both suffer the consequences of living in a white supremacist settler-colonial state; we are bound together in that reality and our collective struggles.

With the full support of the Western “international community,” the insane, fascist Netanyahu government has temporarily displaced the consequences of the internal contradictions in Israel with this war it is waging on Palestinian people. But the ultimate contradiction, the contradiction between the colonial state and the colonized peoples, will be resolved with the victory of all colonized peoples. Of that, we are certain.

Palestine will be free!

Banner photo: Palestinians protest holding up a Palestine flag amidst a Zionist assault in 2018 (courtesy edition.cnn.com)

The BAP-Baltimore Condemns Baltimore Water Crisis As Gross Negligence

The Black Alliance for Peace-Baltimore Condemns Baltimore Water Crisis As Gross Negligence

For Immediate Release:

Media Contact

communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

October 5, 2023—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns Baltimore City’s Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore City’s City Council President Nick Mosby, the entire Baltimore City Council, Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW), and Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) for their gross negligence in handling the Cryptosporidium parasite in the Druid Hill water supply contamination crisis.

Five days ago, a “routine” test of the Druid Lake Reservoir found levels of the Cryptosporidium parasite inside the uncovered reservoir. The drinking water is used by Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Howard County Maryland citizens. City council member Mark Conway posted on X (formerly Twitter) that this microorganism can “potentially cause gastrointestinal issues in those who are immunocompromised, elderly, or children.” The Department of Public Works (DPW) released a statement, just before noon, with the same information and a graphic. No mention of when citizens should look forward to the water being decontaminated, but just continuing the narrative that the parasite will only potentially cause gastrointestinal problems for those who are “immunocompromised, elderly, or children.” They further stated to “please rest assured that the drinking water remains safe for the general public.” Mayor Brandon Scott has released zero statements outside of one quoted post and a couple of re-posts from DPW on X. Zero press releases from the Baltimore City Council, public pages or websites.

The BCHD shared a fact sheet and re-shared the DPW’s FAQ but no information about where to get free water and when this issue could possibly be fixed. It mirrors a similar scene from last September during the E.coli outbreak. The city waited two days to notify the public after water tested positive for contamination, and even then many residents had to find out from friends and neighbors. In March of this year, it was found that Baltimore City officials violated the federal and state public notice rules for E.coli contamination. The parasite found in the water impacts us all, as the “immunocompromised, elderly, and children” are our neighbors, friends and family. In addition, the COVID-19 virus can weaken immune systems, and we are currently in a surge without mask mandates, meaning many citizens could experience health problems from the parasite before they realize they are at risk. Again, Baltimore City officials are performing an illegal act to its citizens and the rest of Marylanders by not properly informing, educating and providing bottled water for its affected citizens. 

This crisis is in a larger context of continued neglect of Baltimore’s aging infrastructure, including in other systems. For example, the city is refusing to expand a program to help residents clean sewage backups again caused by neglect though it is under a modified consent decree by the EPA and has been directed to do so by state and federal regulators. Instead the city chooses to pump money into bloated police programs such as the “Deadly Exchange” program, a massive exchange between the U.S. and Israeli police. Recently, the city is proposing a new $330 million joint training facility for Baltimore’s police and fire departments on West Baltimore’s Coppin State University campus. Even more, routinely half of Baltimore’s discretionary annual budget is allocated to police such that Baltimore spends the most per capita of any major city in the United States on policing. Rather than spending on absurd police budgets that do not increase public safety, resources should be prioritized to fix the city's debilitated infrastructure. 

The city’s trusted government officials and departments are continuing to be neglectful and misleading the majority of its citizens to believe that only a certain community among them would be affected. In Baltimore, resources are only rapidly mobilized to provide cover for police malfeasance. Similar to the government's messaging on COVID, the city downplays the actual dangers of the situation and does little to protect its citizens. Instead, we demand accurate information be dispersed in a timely manner across platforms that reach majorities of city residents, resources, including water, be accessibly distributed across affected neighborhoods, and city resources directed to improve utilities. Given that there was a problem with the water supply last year around the same time, city leadership should also have a preventative plan to address safety and cleanliness of the city’s water supply permanently.

Sources:

DPW Baltimore:

• https://www.instagram.com/p/CxwKksHsx_i/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

• https://www.instagram.com/p/CxyOB6lJuez/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&img_index=1

• https://twitter.com/baltimoredpw/status/1708259945777373202?s=42&t=QajmELtReCd6IqlP3XeATQ

• https://x.com/BaltimoreDPW/status/1707818680996827453?s=20 

• https://x.com/BaltimoreDPW/status/1707819859524862327?s=20

• https://publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/news/press-releases/2023-09-28-dpw-detects-low-levels-cryptosporidium-during-routine-testing-druid#:~:text=Thursday%20Sep%2028th%2C%202023&text=Today%2C%20the%20Baltimore%20City%20Department,microscopic%20parasite%20Cryptosporidium%20were%20discovered

• https://twitter.com/baltimoredpw/status/1708259945777373202?s=42&t=QajmELtReCd6IqlP3XeATQ

• https://publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/cryptosporidium-faqs

Mayor:

• https://twitter.com/mayorbmscott/status/1707535251440910452?s=46&t=QajmELtReCd6IqlP3XeATQ

• https://mayor.baltimorecity.gov/news

City Council President:

• https://www.baltimorecitycouncil.com/

CDC:

• https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/

BCHD:

• https://health.maryland.gov/phpa/pages/Cryptosporidiosis.aspx

• https://twitter.com/bmore_healthy/status/1707773041856373177?s=46&t=QajmELtReCd6IqlP3XeATQ 

BAP Articles:

• https://blackallianceforpeace.com/newsletter/baltimorefreedomfighter

• https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/notocopcitybaltimore

Baltimore pushes back against EPA order to cover more sewage backups

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/environment/bs-md-baltimore-sewage-backups-disagreement-epa-20230726-cmvjhplddba65ks2k3smnx3sli-story.html

Baltimore Won’t Expand a Program to Help Residents Clean up After Sewage Backups

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072023/baltimore-sewage-backups-epa/

Aging water infrastructure at the root of Baltimore E. coli contamination, city officials say

The city received positive tests of bacteria in the water system on Saturday, Sept. 3, but residents didn’t learn about the contamination until two days later, on Labor Day morning.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/aging-water-infrastructure-at-the-root-of-baltimore-e-coli-contamination-city-officials-say-OWQ4VB3FKREYBBLQPYN6DRBGA4/

A Look at Environmental Justice Issues in Maryland

Black Americans in Baltimore are disproportionately impacted by water affordability issues, as water rates have risen more rapidly than the national average, partly due to failing infrastructure. Studies show that by 2022, the average annual water bill for Baltimore citizens will be triple the national average of 2010 water bills. 

https://climate-xchange.org/2022/01/14/a-look-at-environmental-justice-issues-in-maryland/

BALTIMORE’S CRIME NUMBERS GAME

Baltimore spends the most per capita of any major city in the United States on policing.

https://therealnews.com/baltimore-police-spending-violent-crime-statistics 

Despite 'defunding' claims, police funding has increased in many US cities

An ABC analysis of state and local police funding and overall violent crime data in the U.S. between 1985 and 2020 found no relationship between year-to-year police spending and crime rates. An analysis by the Washington Post found similar results from 1960 to 2018.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/defunding-claims-police-funding-increased-us-cities/story?id=91511971#:~:text=An%20ABC%20analysis%20of%20state,results%20from%201960%20to%202018.

Banner photo: Baltimore activists protest for the human right to water (courtesy peopledemandingaction.org, David Card)

We Denounce UN Security Council's Approval to Send a Kenya-led Mission to Haiti

WE DENOUNCE UN SECURITY COUNCIL'S

APPROVAL TO SEND A KENYA-LED MISSION TO HAITI

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the decision by the United States and its allies to deploy a foreign military force to Haiti. We are adamant that a U.S./UN-led armed foreign intervention in Haiti is not only illegitimate, but illegal. And we support Haitian people and civil society organizations who have been consistent in their opposition to foreign armed military intervention – and who have argued that the problems of Haiti are a direct result of the persistent and long-term meddling of the United States, the United Nations, and the Core Group.

On Monday, October 2nd, 2023, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted on a resolution for a Multinational Security Support Mission authorizing the deployment of a foreign  military and police intervention into the Republic of Haiti. Although the vote did not receive unanimous approval as it saw abstentions from two permanent UNSC members, 13 other permanent and non-permanent members voted in support, including 3 African countries (Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique). This is a particularly egregious betrayal of Haiti, which has been for Africans and Black people around the world, a beacon in the fight against slavery, colonialism and imperialism. Yet the U.S. administration, the corporate media, alongside figures such as Linda Thomas-Greenfield, have hailed the vote as a victory. We note, also, that the U.S. has tapped Kenya, another African country, to lead a multinational force of “volunteer” nations to occupy Haiti, leaving their own troops at home while offering at leas t$100 million in support.

There is a long history here. For more than two years now, the U.S. has been pushing for a build-up of the military presence in Haiti to protect the puppet government of the unelected and unpopular Ariel Henry. Yet the U.S. is not willing to put its own boots on the ground, turning instead, first to Canada, then Brazil, then the CELAC and CARICOM countries–all of whom were reluctant to lead the mission, even if they supported the call for military intervention. The Kenyan government leapt at the opportunity to lead the intervention, bought off by a bag of silver and an approving pat on their neoliberal heads. Haiti will now be invaded by the U.S., but with the Black face of Kenya as cover. Kenya erroneously claims this is “Pan-Africanism;” it is, in fact, neocolonialism.

We are told that the interest of the U.S. in Haiti is humanitarian, that the U.S wants to protect the Haitian people from “criminal gangs.” Yet U.S. weapons have flooded Haiti, and the U.S. has consistently rejected calls to effectively enforce the UNSC resolution for an arms embargo against the Haitian and U.S. elite who import guns into the country. Moreover, when we speak of “gangs,” we must recognize that the most powerful gangs in the country are subsidiaries of the U.S. itself: the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) and the Core Group, the two colonial entities who have effectively ruled the country since the U.S./France/Canada-backed coup d’etat of 2004. Haiti has no sovereignty and has long been under foreign occupation. The current de facto “Prime Minister” was installed by the Core Group and whatever calls for military intervention are being made by those already occupying Haiti.

We hold in contempt the neocolonial governments that are taking part in this mission to further oppress Haitian people and deny them sovereignty. We denounce the governments of Kenya and the CARICOM nations, such as Bahamas, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda, which have  failed Haiti and have violated the notion of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

Furthermore, we demand that:

1. The U.S. and the UN must end their interference in Haiti and the Core Group must be disbanded.

2. The U.S. must stop its criminal gangster actions against Haiti and stop propping up the illegitimate government they installed.

3. Kenya must end its support for a racist and imperialist intervention in Haiti

4. The governments of the U.S. and the Dominican Republic stop dumping arms and ammunition into the country and for the de facto Prime Minister to stop arming paramilitaries in the country. 

5. The United Nations pay restitution for the devastating 2010 cholera outbreak by rebuilding Haiti’s water, sanitation, health, and educational infrastructure.

6. That fuel subsidies for Haiti are reinstated and the minimum wage increased.

7. The CARICOM countries, alongside other regional nations, normalize pathways for work visas and citizenship for Haitian nationals.

We vow to stand on the side of the Haitian people against imperialism! 

SIGNED,

718 Coalition

Acción Afro-Dominicana, RD

ADDI Caribbean

Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition 

All African People’s Revolutionary Party

Alliance for Global Justice

Anti Displacement NYC

Aquelarre RD

Ban Killer Drones

Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team

Canadian Peace Congress

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration

Caribbean Organisation for Peoples Empowerment

Caribbean Solidarity Network

Chicago Antiwar Coalition (CAWC)

CODEPINK

Comité Dominicano de Derechos Humanos -CDDH-, RD

Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran

Communist Party of Kenya

Community Movement Builders

Consejo de Organizaciones Sociales y Populares del Paraguay

Consejo por la Emancipación Plurinacional Peruana

Cooperation Jackson

COPLAC-Confederación Palestina Latinoamericana y del Caribe

Dar al Janub - Verein für antirassistische und Friedenspolitische Initiative

Decolonial Feminist Collective

Diaspora Pa’lante Collective

Dr. Alejandro Rusconi – Movimiento Evita

Durham Beyond Policing

Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez

G-REBLS

Haiti Action

Haiti Action Committee

Haiti Liberté

Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice

International Action Center

International Manifesto Group/New Cold War

La Articulación Regional Afrodescendiente de las Américas y el Caribe (ARAAC)

League of Young Communists USA

Left Alliance for National Democracy and Socialism - Jamaica LANDS

Malcolm X Center for Self Determination

Massachusetts Peace Action

Memphis 4 Revolutionary Socialism

Michigan General Defense Committee

Midwestern Marx Institute

MOLEGHAF (Mouvman Libèté, Egalite sou chimen Fratènite tout Ayisyen)

Montreal pour un Monde sans Guerre (World BEYOND War)

Movement for People's Democracy

Movimiento Argentino de Solidaridad con Cuba (Mascuba)

Movimiento Caamañista -MC-, RD

Movimiento Popular Dominicano -MPD-, RD

Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y la Solidaridad entre los Pueblos (MOPASSOL)

Movimiento Rebelde -MR-, RD

Movimiento Reconocido

NJ State Industrial Union Council

Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos

Orinoco Tribune

Palestinian Youth Movement - Detroit Chapter

Pan-African Community Action (PACA)

Partido Comunista del Trabajo -PCT-, RD

Partido Movimiento del Socialismo Allendista de Chile

Partido Nuevo Encuentro – Argentina

Partido Socialista de Peru

Peace Action, Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania

People's Power Assembly

Pro Derechos Humanos Bolivia (PRODEHBOL)

Rasanbleman Pou Ayiti

Reparations United

Rethink New Orleans

Rochester (NY) Committee on Latin America

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Workers League-Nigeria

Socialist Workers' Movement of the Dominican Republic (MST)

SOLI Puerto Rico

Solidaridad Dominicana Con Haití, Rep. Dominicana

Solidarity Committee of the Americas, Minnesota 

The African Diaspora Foundation (Barbados)

The Barbados Sovereignty Party

The Global Pan African Movement (GPAM) North American Chapter

The Global Sovereign Peoples Movement

The International Black Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Party of Communists USA

The People’s Forum

The Red Nation

The Regional Coordination Committee of the Pan Afrikan and Indigenous Movement of the Caribbean

The Ubuntu Reading Group

Troika Collective

Ubuntu Freedom

Ujima People’s Progress Party

UNAC (United Antiwar Coalition)

US Palestinian Community Network

Women Against Military Madness

Workers World Party

World BEYOND War

Zimbabwe Movement of Pan African Socialists

——-ESPAÑOL——-

DENUNCIAMOS LA APROBACIÓN POR EL CONSEJO DE SEGURIDAD DE LA ONU DEL ENVÍO DE UNA MISIÓN DIRIGIDA POR KENIA A HAITÍ

Nosotros, los firmantes, condenamos enérgicamente la decisión de Estados Unidos y sus aliados de desplegar una fuerza militar extranjera en Haití. Sostenemos firmemente que una intervención armada extranjera liderada por Estados Unidos y la ONU en Haití no sólo es ilegítima, sino también ilegal. Apoyamos al pueblo haitiano y a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil que han sido coherentes en su oposición a la intervención militar extranjera armada y que han argumentado que los problemas de Haití son resultado directo de la persistente e intervención a largo plazo de Estados Unidos, la ONU y el ‘Core Group’ (Grupo Principal).

El lunes 2 de octubre de 2023, el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU votó sobre una resolución para una Misión de Apoyo de Seguridad Multinacional que autoriza el despliegue de una intervención militar y policial extranjera en la República de Haití. Aunque la votación no recibió la aprobación unánime, ya que se registraron abstenciones de dos miembros permanentes del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, otros 13 miembros permanentes y no permanentes votaron a favor, incluyendo a 3 países africanos (Gabón, Ghana y Mozambique). Esto representa una traición especialmente grave hacia Haití, que ha sido un faro en la lucha contra la esclavitud, el colonialismo y el imperialismo para los africanos y las personas negras de todo el mundo. Sin embargo, la administración de Estados Unidos, los medios corporativos, junto con figuras como Linda Thomas-Greenfield, han celebrado la votación como una victoria. También observamos que Estados Unidos ha designado a Kenia, otro país africano, para liderar una fuerza multinacional de naciones "voluntarias" para ocupar Haití, dejando a sus propias tropas en casa y ofreciendo al menos $100 millones en apoyo.

Hay una larga historia aquí. Durante más de dos años, Estados Unidos ha estado presionando para aumentar la presencia militar en Haití para proteger al gobierno títere del impopular e ilegítimo Ariel Henry. Sin embargo, Estados Unidos no está dispuesto a poner sus propias botas en el terreno, recurriendo en su lugar primero a Canadá, luego a Brasil, y luego a los países de CELAC y CARICOM, todos los cuales se mostraron renuentes a liderar la misión, incluso si apoyaban la llamada a la intervención militar. El gobierno de Kenia se lanzó a la oportunidad de liderar la intervención, comprado con una bolsa de plata y una aprobación en sus cabezas neoliberales. Haití será invadido por Estados Unidos, pero con la cara negra de Kenia como fachada. Kenia afirma erróneamente que esto es "panafricanismo"; de hecho, es neocolonialismo.

Se nos dice que el interés de Estados Unidos en Haití es humanitario, que Estados Unidos quiere proteger al pueblo haitiano de las "bandas criminales". Sin embargo, las armas estadounidenses han inundado Haití, y Estados Unidos ha rechazado constantemente las llamadas para hacer cumplir efectivamente la resolución del CSNU para un embargo de armas contra la élite haitiana y estadounidense que importa armas al país. Además, cuando hablamos de "bandas", debemos reconocer que las bandas más poderosas en el país son subsidiarias de Estados Unidos mismo: la Oficina Integrada de las Naciones Unidas (BINUH) y el Core Group, las dos entidades coloniales que han gobernado efectivamente el país desde el golpe de Estado respaldado por Estados Unidos/Francia/Canadá de 2004. Haití no tiene soberanía y ha estado bajo ocupación extranjera durante mucho tiempo. El actual "Primer Ministro de facto" fue instalado por el Core Group, y cualquier llamado a la intervención militar proviene de aquellos que ya están ocupando Haití.

Despreciamos a los gobiernos neocoloniales que participan en esta misión para oprimir aún más al pueblo haitiano y negarles su soberanía. Denunciamos a los gobiernos de Kenia y las naciones del CARICOM, como Bahamas, Jamaica y Antigua y Barbuda, que han fallado a Haití y han violado el concepto del Caribe como una zona de paz.

Además, exigimos que:

1. Estados Unidos y la ONU pongan fin a su interferencia en Haití y que se disuelva el ‘Core Group’.

2. Estados Unidos debe poner fin a sus acciones criminales de gánster contra Haití y dejar de sostener al gobierno ilegítimo que instaló.

3. Kenia debe poner fin a su apoyo a una intervención racista e imperialista en Haití.

4. Los gobiernos de Estados Unidos y la República Dominicana dejen de arrojar armas y municiones al país, y el Primer Ministro de facto deje de armar a los paramilitares en el país.

5. La ONU indemniza por el devastador brote de cólera de 2010 reconstruyendo la infraestructura de agua, saneamiento, salud y educación de Haití.

6. Se restablezcan los subsidios a los combustibles en Haití y se aumente el salario mínimo.

7. Los países del CARICOM, junto con otras naciones de la región, normalizan los caminos para visas de trabajo y ciudadanía para los nacionales haitianos.

8. Nos comprometemos a estar del lado del pueblo haitiano contra el imperialismo.

FIRMADO,

718 Coalition

Acción Afro-Dominicana, RD

ADDI Caribbean

Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition 

All African People’s Revolutionary Party

Alliance for Global Justice

Anti Displacement NYC

Aquelarre RD

Ban Killer Drones

Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team

Canadian Peace Congress

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration

Caribbean Organisation for Peoples Empowerment

Caribbean Solidarity Network

Chicago Antiwar Coalition (CAWC)

CODEPINK

Comité Dominicano de Derechos Humanos -CDDH-, RD

Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran

Communist Party of Kenya

Community Movement Builders

Consejo de Organizaciones Sociales y Populares del Paraguay

Consejo por la Emancipación Plurinacional Peruana

Cooperation Jackson

COPLAC-Confederación Palestina Latinoamericana y del Caribe

Dar al Janub - Verein für antirassistische und Friedenspolitische Initiative

Decolonial Feminist Collective

Diaspora Pa’lante Collective

Dr. Alejandro Rusconi – Movimiento Evita

Durham Beyond Policing

Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez

G-REBLS

Haiti Action

Haiti Action Committee

Haiti Liberté

Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice

International Action Center

International Manifesto Group/New Cold War

La Articulación Regional Afrodescendiente de las Américas y el Caribe (ARAAC)

League of Young Communists USA

Left Alliance for National Democracy and Socialism - Jamaica LANDS

Malcolm X Center for Self Determination

Massachusetts Peace Action

Memphis 4 Revolutionary Socialism

Michigan General Defense Committee

Midwestern Marx Institute

MOLEGHAF (Mouvman Libèté, Egalite sou chimen Fratènite tout Ayisyen)

Montreal pour un Monde sans Guerre (World BEYOND War)

Movement for People's Democracy

Movimiento Argentino de Solidaridad con Cuba (Mascuba)

Movimiento Caamañista -MC-, RD

Movimiento Popular Dominicano -MPD-, RD

Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y la Solidaridad entre los Pueblos (MOPASSOL)

Movimiento Rebelde -MR-, RD

Movimiento Reconocido

NJ State Industrial Union Council

Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos

Orinoco Tribune

Palestinian Youth Movement - Detroit Chapter

Pan-African Community Action (PACA)

Partido Comunista del Trabajo -PCT-, RD

Partido Movimiento del Socialismo Allendista de Chile

Partido Nuevo Encuentro – Argentina

Partido Socialista de Peru

Peace Action, Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania

People's Power Assembly

Pro Derechos Humanos Bolivia (PRODEHBOL)

Rasanbleman Pou Ayiti

Reparations United

Rethink New Orleans

Rochester (NY) Committee on Latin America

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Workers League-Nigeria

Socialist Workers' Movement of the Dominican Republic (MST)

SOLI Puerto Rico

Solidaridad Dominicana Con Haití, Rep. Dominicana

Solidarity Committee of the Americas, Minnesota 

The African Diaspora Foundation (Barbados)

The Barbados Sovereignty Party

The Global Pan African Movement (GPAM) North American Chapter

The Global Sovereign Peoples Movement

The International Black Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Party of Communists USA

The People’s Forum

The Red Nation

The Regional Coordination Committee of the Pan Afrikan and Indigenous Movement of the Caribbean

The Ubuntu Reading Group

Troika Collective

Ubuntu Freedom

Ujima People’s Progress Party

UNAC (United Antiwar Coalition)

US Palestinian Community Network

Women Against Military Madness

Workers World Party

World BEYOND War

Zimbabwe Movement of Pan African Socialists

Banner art and flier: by Okra Sanyika

BAP-Baltimore Says No to Cop City

BAP-BALTIMORE SAYS NO COP CITY

The Black Alliance for Peace Baltimore Citywide Alliance strongly opposes the proposal for a new $330 million joint training facility for Baltimore’s police and fire departments on West Baltimore’s Coppin State University campus. The  contradictions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) fostering growing relationships with the state are sharpened with this proposal on a campus with access to the Department of Defense 1033 program budgets, which transfers military equipment to civilian law enforcement agencies. Any potential existence of a joint training facility for a police department  currently under a consent decree, that names violations of civil liberties, not only serves to create and sustain tensions  negatively impacting the overall campus climate but the surrounding  predominantly Black, working-class communities of West Baltimore. 

Baltimore City’s 1033 program budget is not exclusive to the HBCU campuses of Coppin State University and Morgan State University, allowing them access to weapons such as rifles, glocks, and “riot style” 12-gauge shotguns. Over the last decade, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) has received roughly $500,000 in military-grade weapons and vehicles.  Alongside access to the 1033 program, the city engages in the “Deadly Exchange” program, a massive exchange between the U.S. and Israeli police and Israeli military where hyper-militarized policing techniques and technology are shared. There is also Operation Relentless Pursuit, making Baltimore 1 of 7 cities, including Detroit, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Kansas City, Memphis, and Milwaukee, selected for the Trump Administration’s “surge” of federal, state,and local resources. More recently, the Johns Hopkins Police Department (JHPD), a private police force, has been approved to work alongside the Baltimore City Police with no community oversight supported by the stakeholders of Johns Hopkins, and not the people of Baltimore or students and workers on campus. All of this is in addition to half of Baltimore’s discretionary (as opposed to recurring) annual budget being routinely allocated to the police. Altogether, the city, state, and federal funds allocated to police amount to more than $900,000,000.

Similar to the push for “Cop City” in Atlanta, this proposed training facility is being championed by the Black Misleadership Class of Baltimore City. Although the status of who controls the Baltimore City Police Department remains in limbo, this project is backed by Mayor Brandon M. Scott and  is spearheaded by Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby, who has a cloud of controversy around him. As the Baltimore Banner notes, “[Mosby] has championed the project for nearly a decade.” Furthermore, Mosby’s time as city council president has had its fair share of issues, from two ethics violations concerning the mishandling of funds, to referring to the veto of the Security Deposits Bill as ”modern-day redlining”, despite how it would have positively impacted working-class Black communities. Yet, Mosby has made this training facility his legacy project. 

“The issue in Baltimore City is not a lack of police training, but instead consistent over-policing that hones in on the colonial status of Africans and other oppressed peoples occupied in their own communities,” says BAP-Baltimore Citywide Alliance member Erica Caines.

What was once a fixation on a “war on drugs,” is now being slated as a “war on crime” to ensure the constant approval of budgets for more policing “to healing the wounds of the past,” while ignoring the ongoing plight of the poor, working class residents of the city that includes a lack of sufficient healthcare, education, housing, and any semblance of People(s)-Centered Human Rights. 

According to Rafiki Morris, a former community organizer of people with opioid use disorders, there are 60,000 people currently living with  addiction or recovery in Baltimore City. Given the criminalization of addiction and the militarization of police, the “citizens are constantly harassed, incarcerated and threatened with incarceration by overzealous police who use them as confidential informants (CI), thus turning a significant portion of the population against their communities. These people also effectively serve as the eyes and ears of the police (CIs), since any minor contact with police or any association with other felons can violate the conditions of parole or probation, thus landing them back in jail. For all intents and purposes, Baltimore, is an internal U.S. colony, kept in check by an occupying armed force called the police.

In Baltimore, 20.3% of the population live on or under the poverty line, which is 131.5% above the state’s poverty line. Rather than developing sustainable programs to address this endless cycle of poverty, Baltimore proposes to spend an obscene amount of money on a police training center that includes classrooms, administration buildings, a firing range, indoor and outdoor fitness, a community plaza, and a tactical training village. The training village combines street widths commonly seen in Baltimore City (avenue, street, and alley) with building typology  (two-story row homes, liquor stores, garden apartments, and convenience stores). This village models real-world scenarios to assist training in maneuvering through Baltimore neighborhoods. The implications of developing expertise in urban warfare without dutifully returning justice and power to the hands of communities only entail the successful advancement of oppression.

Proponents of a Cop City in Baltimore must recognize the relationship intentionally stewarded between the police and city residents. The proposal is not only profoundly offensive but erases the steep historical context of the corruption and injustice African/Black poor working-class communities have been subject to with vocal opposition, dawning the existence of the police state. The absurdity of such notions is perpetuated when analyzing the suggestions of the Community Oversight Task Force responsible for “guiding” the morality of the BPD throughout its Consent Decree obligations. Holding this truth, it becomes clear that there is no intention of the State and its Black Misleadership Class to dismantle and repair the fundamental power imbalances between law enforcement and citizens, making this corruption possible. There is no monetary incentive there, and the ethical burden is too high. This is the message being confirmed by a Cop City proposal. Our college campuses — the only places in the city where our youth can access higher education — are not grounds for grossly underdeveloped, atomistic, violent passion projects of the neocolonialist state. With this, there is no respect for our youth's future nor our institutions' legacy and potential. We are called to protect what is supposed to be ours. 

The existence of a training facility in a predominantly  African/Black poor working class community will only be used to enforce further the status quo of white power and colonial control over the lives of African and other oppressed nations of people. The solution to the issues that plague Baltimore City is not MORE police training but People(s) Centered Human Rights ensuring the needs of Baltimore City  residents are met.  

NO COP CITY IN BALTIMORE! DEFEAT THE WAR ON AFRICANS HERE AND ABROAD! 

Banner photo: A police tactical vehicle leaves the scene with officers in fatigues hanging on. Courtesy WBAL's Robert Lang.

Amidst Military Escalations From Niger to Haiti to Atlanta, BAP Launches the 4th International Month of Action Against AFRICOM

Amidst Military Escalations From Niger to Haiti to Atlanta, 

The Black Alliance for Peace Launches the 4th International Month of Action Against the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)

For Immediate Release:

Media Contact
communications@blackallianceforpeace.com
(202) 643-1136

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023—Organizations from around the world have endorsed and will participate in the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) 4th International Month of Action Against AFRICOM.

A war is being waged against African people across the continent and the diaspora. Whether it’s people in Atlanta fighting to #StopCopCity, a $90 million dollar militarized police training facility, the people of Haiti fighting for their sovereignty against imperial interventionism carried out by the Black misleadership class, or African people across the Sahel and neo-colonial Africa fighting against French and U.S. imperialism, we are in solidarity with those who seek to dismantle these exploitative structures in favor of a people-centered human rights model.

Across the Sahel, the African masses have taken to the streets, calling for French troops to leave their lands. This has taken place in states like Niger, where the United States has nine military installations.

AFRICOM is a force of neocolonial occupation. The people have united to free their lands of all U.S./EU/NATO military forces and intelligence operatives. Regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), are exposing themselves as comprador structures of neocolonialism by doing the bidding of western imperialist institutions.

Through this International Month of Action Against AFRICOM, we aim to express our support for the aspirations of the people in the streets and call for the ejection of all Western forces, including AFRICOM and NATO, from the African Continent.

NATO is a global axle in the wheel of the military industrial complex, which includes more than 800 U.S. military bases around the world as well as  joint bases or relationships with almost all African countries. These are all controlled by the U.S. empire for realizing the U.S. policy of Full Spectrum Dominance, which is driven by the ferocious appetite of international finance capital.

That is why we call on our friends and allies to endorse this month as an individual or organization. Beyond that, we are calling on you to participate each week using our calls to action, for which we have provided materials on our webpage. Each week’s call to action ranges from watching our kick-off webinar, “From Niger to Haiti to Cop City, Defeat the War Against African People”, to organizing mass actions like banner drops, facilitating teach-ins using our materials and spreading the word using BAP’s custom graphics.

The Black Alliance for Peace calls for the dismantling of NATO, AFRICOM and all imperialist structures. Africa and the rest of the world cannot be free until all Peoples are able to realize the right of sovereignty and the right to live free of domination.

We demand:

• The complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Africa;

• The demilitarization of the African Continent;

• The closure of U.S. bases throughout the world; and

• The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) oppose the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and conduct hearings on AFRICOM’s impact on the African continent, with the full participation of members of U.S. and African civil society.

No compromise!

No retreat!

Banner photo: A man stands in a dense crowd of other Nigerien protestors holding high a sign that reads “Non à la France Voleur de l'Afrique (No to France, thief of Africa)", courtesy Reuter; Vincent Bado.

BAP Atlanta SAYS FREE THEM ALL!

BAP Atlanta SAYS FREE THEM ALL

Statement on Cop City Indictments

On September 5th, 2023, Georgia's Attorney General Chris Carr issued RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) indictments against 61 individuals who they allege to be part of a “criminal” conspiracy related to the Stop Cop City Movement.  Many of those indicted face concurring charges related to domestic terrorism or money laundering. 

At the core, these charges are both fraudulent and tyrannical. In the indictment, these charges were indicated as beginning on May 25, 2020 – the day George Floyd was murdered. How can that be anything but a warning shot to not only local Atlantans, but to everybody across the country fighting against police and state terror. Our history tells us that the State, when threatened, will drop all pretense of “rule of law” in order to crush resistance. Our current moment tells us this.

Compared to two years ago, the Stop Cop City Movement has spread far and wide into a burgeoning popular mass movement, no longer confined to the city limits of Atlanta, and our fire is getting bigger and they are doing everything to snuff it out! We must be vigilant if we are to stand against these tried-and-true methods of oppressions. We must be determined in freeing all of the political prisoners created from this struggle. 

And we won’t let anyone off the hook. Reports are saying that the same grand jury used to indict Donald Trump was also used to indict these activists. While we are not distracted by the Trump Trials, this context must be investigated. Therefore one must ask what level of collusion was there between Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA, State AG Carr, and of course the City of Atlanta? Grand juries are selected by prosecutors to virtually guarantee indictments. This must mean the Fulton County DA and State AG agreed to use the same group of people to rubber stamp both the Trump indictments (indicted under the same Georgia RICO statute) and these Cop City indictments.

We will not be distracted from what's happening in front of our eyes. It wasn’t just the Georgia State Patrol who carried out the extrajudicial murder of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran in the Weelaunee Forest this past January, a murder they continue to cover up in these very indictments! And we can’t forget the City of Atlanta with Mayor Andre Dickens at the helm, spending the better part of his summer trying to sink a constitutional and legal referendum against Cop City with bogus legal challenges, leveraging some of the same legal tactics he slams his Republican opponents for!

The soldiers of the pan-European, patriarchal white supremacist system are in a United Front against Us, the People. It is imperative now more than ever that we strengthen our United Front against them. 

• BAP Atlanta demands that all charges against Stop Cop City protestors are dropped,

• BAP Atlanta demands that the Mayor Andre Dickens resign and the City of Atlanta cancel the Cop City lease,

• BAP Atlanta demands that all political prisoners incarcerated in the state of Georgia be pardoned and released. FREE THEM ALL!

No Compromise, No Retreat!

BAP-Atlanta

bapatl@blackallianceforpeace.com

Banner photo: Marching protesters in Atlanta, Georgia holding banner that says “Stop Cop City” , Friday, March 10, 2023. (Courtesy Camila Cuevas/Latino Rebels)

No to Blackface imperialism. Yes to Haitian Sovereignty

OPPOSE FOREIGN INTERVENTION IN HAITI

No to Blackface imperialism. Yes to Haitian Sovereignty.

On August 1, 2023, the United States stated it would “put forward a U.N. Security Council resolution that will authorize Kenya to lead a multinational police force to help combat gangs in Haiti.” While Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic,” their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name. An occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the United States, the Core Group, and the United Nations.

For the last two years, these imperialist forces have been pushing for further armed intervention into Haiti to forcefully uphold the illegitimate “government” they have installed to maintain their control. The occupying entities of the US, United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), and the Core Group have been desperately searching for any multilateral institution to lead this intervention, be it the UN Security Council, Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and others. The goal is the continued denial of Haitian sovereignty.  

Haiti’s occupiers, the Core Group and BINUH, along with their puppet government, are incapable of ensuring healthcare, food, security, and access to basic needs for the people. We are told that the interest of the U.S. is humanitarian, that it wants to protect the Haitian people from “gang violence.” But we know that Haiti’s imperial occupiers have created the crisis and have fueled the violence against Haitian people.

The Black Alliance for Peace stands in solidarity with the Haitian’s people’s constant call for disbanding the Core Group, for an arms embargo against the Haitian and U.S. elite who import guns into the country, for the end of support for Haiti’s installed puppet government, and for the reinstatement of the fuel subsidies removed by order of the IMF.  It is curious that the Core Group and US/UN are calling for military intervention while not making calls to build either hospitals or schools, or to build the infrastructure for power and clean water. Yet, BINUH and the Core Group cooperate with the oligarchs who establish monopolistic domination through intimidation and force.

The ongoing occupation of Haiti and calls for increased foreign military presence in Haiti have been justified as the only solution to political or economic crises. Yet, the true ongoing crisis in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism. The country's economic and social situation has reached a critical stage, allowing for  increased political instability.

BAP demands that Kenya rescind their proposal to send 1,000 police to Haiti, and calls on the Kenyan people to join the Haitian masses and radical voices worldwide in condemning the continued occupation and governance of Haiti by the Core Group and the UN.

BAP calls on individuals and organizations in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean and Central and Latin America, especially those member states of CELAC and CARICOM, to demand that their elected representatives SAY NO to any resolution at present or in the future to militarily intervene in Haiti.

BAP calls on individuals and organizations on the continent of Africa, particularly Pan-African organizations, to denounce African governments participation in present or future armed intervention into Haiti, and demand leaders of their countries seek true Pan-African alliances with the people and grassroots organizations of Haiti, in support of their sovereignty and self-determination – in line with demands of 60+ Haitian civic and social organizations in their letter to the African Union, dated 6 August 2023  (English | Francés).

BAP calls for popular movements in the Americas in support of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) 2014 call to make the Americas region a Zone of Peace.

SIGN HERE

Call, tweet, and email these demands to: 

Kenya: Ambassador William Ruto 

(202) 387-6101

Email: information@kenyembassydc.org or complaints@kenyaembassydc.org

Twitter: @KenyaembassyDC or@ForeignOfficeKE or @StateHouseKenya

Jamaica: Ambassador Audrey Patrice Marks

(202) 452-0660

Email: contactus@jamaicaembassy.org

Twitter: @USEmbassyJA

The Bahamas: Ambassador Wendall K. Jones

(202) 319-2660

Email: EMBASSY@BAHAMASEMBDC.ORG

Twitter: @bahamasembassy

CARICOM: CARICOM Secretariat

Turkeyen Georgetown, Guyana

Email registry@caricom.org or communications@caricom.org 

 +1(592) 222-0001

Twitter: @CARICOMorg

UN: UN Secretary-General António Guterres 

(212) 963-7160

Twitter: @antonioguterres

No to occupation. No to foreign intervention. No to Blackface imperialism. 

Yes to sovereignty. Yes to a true Pan-African alliance between the people of Haiti and Kenya.  

#HandsOffHaiti

Banner photo: Painting of French colonizing soldier being hung from trees by Haitian rebels. (courtesy PBS Documentary - Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture & The Haitian Revolution)

All Africans Should Condemn the Call for an ECOWAS-led Military Invasion of Niger

All Africans Should Condemn the Call for an ECOWAS-led Military Invasion of Niger

The Africa Team of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) condemn the threats of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to lead a military intervention into Niger. We believe this would be an act of subservience to U.S./EU/NATO interests. As Western imperialism seems to be losing its neo-colonialist grip on Africa, it is trying to expand its use of puppets and proxies to undermine resistance.

The military coup in Niger on July 26 deposed President Mohamed Bazoum and installed General Abdourahamane Tchiani as the country's new leader. In power since 2021, Bazoum and his party were reliable servants of French and U.S. imperialism. This may help explain why the United States and its NATO allies seemed overly concerned about this particular coup.

The West’s hypocritical claims of standing for “democracy” in Niger fall flat when compared to its response to the military coup in Sudan as well as the political repression faced by the popular movement in that country. The United States (and its Western partners) has had a hand in orchestrating countless coups in Africa, such as those against democratically elected leaders Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, to name a few.

The objective of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination is colonial control of Niger and the Sahel region. France and other EU countries rely on Niger for 15-30 percent of their uranium imports, critical to Europe's nuclear energy sector. Meanwhile, the majority of Niger’s population doesn’t even have access to electricity. Furthermore, Niger is the last state in West Africa where a large number of Western soldiers are stationed under the U.S. “War on Terror” regime. The $100 million U.S. base in Agadez, Niger, is where the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) operates its drones, and is just one such AFRICOM facility in that country.

As Ezra Otieno, member of the Revolutionary Socialist League in Kenya and BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network Steering Committee, says:

“For all of these factors, France, the EU, and the U.S. are keen to maintain control over Niger. They aim to push the new authorities to restore their puppet Bazoum or to reach an arrangement with General Tchiani to maintain his predecessor's pro-Western stance. If these preparations fail within the next few days, Western imperialists want to intervene militarily with the support of their foot soldiers in the Nigeria-dominated ECOWAS bloc.”

It is clear that the United States and France have decided to draw a line here before France is expelled and U.S. interests are threatened. Without NATO, the United States or France, ECOWAS would not be able to intervene. It is telling that, of all the coups in Africa, ECOWAS is ready to intervene militarily in Niger. This is because their masters in the West demand it. Apparently, ECOWAS member states have chosen servitude to imperialism over the people's will.

In Haiti, the imperialists use Kenya and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as cover for their intervention. To do the same for the coup in Niger, they have the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and ECOWAS. Now they are facing a united front composed of Burkina Faso, and Mali, whose leadership have all expressed support for Niger’s sovereignty. While the CNRD of Guinea, Comité national du rassemblement et du développement (National Committee of Reconciliation and Development) is not part of the front, their Spokesperson, Aminata Diallo said that if “…requested by ECOWAS to send troops that we would refuse…”

ECOWAS is working as a comprador structure, along with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), which has levied financial sanctions against Niger and the coup leaders. The situation in Niger demands an African response, not the imperialist-led and anti-people militarized one suggested by members of ECOWAS.

The Black Alliance for Peace October 2023 International Month of Action against western militarization of the African continent, demanding that the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) is shut down, will be more important than ever before. The annual Month of Action is an opportunity for political education and action that links the domestic war being waged against African peoples in the United States with the war that the United States wages on the continent of Africa and globally.

From Haiti to Niger and beyond, we must build an understanding of Pan-Africanism and illuminate the interdependent geo-political and economic interests among African/Black people in Haiti, the Americas, the African continent, and among those domestically colonized in the enclaves of the imperialist countries.

No to imperialism in Black face. Yes to Pan-African self-determination. U.S. Out of Africa!

Banner photo: Supporters of Niger's ruling junta gather at the start of a protest called to fight for the country's freedom and push back against foreign interference in Niamey, Niger, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (Courtesy AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

In Haiti, Kenya Chooses Imperialist Servitude Over Pan-African Solidarity

ESPAÑOL ABAJO

In Haiti, Kenya Chooses Imperialist Servitude Over Pan-African Solidarity

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:

(201) 292-4591

communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

AUGUST 3, 2023—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns in the strongest possible terms Kenya’s proposal to lead what amounts to a foreign armed intervention in Haiti. 

Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic. Yet, their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name; an occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the United States, the Core Group, and the United Nations.

There is an urgent need for clarity on the issue of occupation in Haiti. As described in a recent statement on Haiti and Colonialism, Haiti is under ongoing occupation. No call for foreign intervention into Haiti from the administration of appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry can be considered legitimate, because the Henry administration itself is illegitimate. BAP has repeatedly pointed out that Haiti’s crisis is a crisis of imperialism. Haiti’s current unpopular and unelected government is propped up only by Haiti’s de facto imperial rulers: the unseemly confederacy of the Core Group countries and organizations, as well as BINUH (the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), and a loose alliance of foreign corporations and local elites. 

Henry and the UN have made a mockery of sovereignty by mouthing the slogan “Haitian solutions to Haitian problems,” yet finding the only solution in violence through foreign military intervention. After repeated failed attempts to organize an occupying force to protect their interests and impose their will on the Haitian people (including appeals to the multinational organization, the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] for troops), they have now found a willing accomplice in Kenya, an east African country with its own set of internal problems. 

As Austin Cole, co-coordinator of the BAP Haiti/Americas Team, argues: “At best, Kenya is allowing itself to be used in a violent line of neocolonial puppetry that will inevitably result in more death and imperial plunder for the masses of Haitians. At worst, Kenya sees this as an easy opportunity to serve the colonial ‘masters’ and win favor for political and financial needs.” 

Indeed, what’s in it for Kenya? An opportunity to both train and enhance the salaries of local police forces and garner a patina of prestige, or at least bootlicking approval, from the West. And for Haiti? White blows from a Black hand and a further erosion of their sovereignty.

BAP demands that Kenya rescind their proposal to send 1,000 police to Haiti, while calling on the Kenyan people to join the Haitian masses and radical voices worldwide in condemning the continued occupation and governance of Haiti by the Core Group and the UN. 

No to occupation. No to foreign intervention. No to Black face imperialism. Yes to sovereignty. Yes to a true Pan-African alliance between the people of Haiti and Kenya.

Banner photo: Police officers patrol a street in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince (courtesy Marvens Compère/Haitian Times)

---

En Español

En Haití, Kenia Prefiere la Servidumbre Imperialista a la Solidaridad PanAfricana

Para Publicación Inmediata

Contacto de Prensa:
(201) 292-4591
communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

3 de AGOSTO de 2023—La Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) condena en los términos más enérgicos posibles la propuesta de Kenia de liderar lo que equivale a una intervención armada extranjera en Haití.

Kenia ha ofrecido desplegar un contingente de 1.000 policías para ayudar a capacitar y ayudar a la policía haitiana, supuestamente para "restaurar el orden" en la república caribeña. Sin embargo, su propuesta no es más que una ocupación militar con otro nombre; una ocupación de Haití por un país africano no es panafricanismo, sino imperialismo occidental de rostro negro. Al aceptar enviar tropas a Haití, el gobierno keniano está contribuyendo a socavar la soberanía y la autodeterminación del pueblo haitiano, al tiempo que sirve a los intereses neocoloniales de Estados Unidos, el ‘Core Group’ y las Naciones Unidas.

Urge aclarar la cuestión de la ocupación en Haití. Como se describe en una reciente declaración sobre Haití y el colonialismo, Haití está bajo una ocupación continua. Ningún llamado a la intervención extranjera en Haití por parte de la administración del nombrado Primer Ministro Ariel Henry puede considerarse legítimo, porque la propia administración Henry es ilegítima. BAP ha señalado en repetidas ocasiones que la crisis de Haití es una crisis del imperialismo. El actual gobierno de Haití, impopular y no electo, solo es sostenido por los gobernantes imperiales de facto de Haití: la indecorosa confederación de países y organizaciones del ‘Core Group’, así como la BINUH (Oficina Integrada de las Naciones Unidas en Haití), y una vaga alianza de corporaciones extranjeras y élites locales.

Henry y la ONU han hecho un desprecio a la soberanía al repetir el eslogan "soluciones haitianas para problemas haitianos", pero encontrando la única solución en la violencia a través de la intervención militar extranjera. Después de repetidos intentos fallidos de organizar una fuerza de ocupación para proteger sus intereses e imponer su voluntad sobre el pueblo haitiano (incluidos llamados a la organización multinacional, la Comunidad del Caribe [CARICOM], para enviar tropas), ahora han encontrado un cómplice dispuesto en Kenia, un país de África Oriental con sus propios problemas internos.

Como argumenta Austin Cole, co-coordinador del Equipo Haití/Américas de BAP: "En el mejor de los casos, Kenia se está dejando utilizar en una violenta línea de títeres neocolonial que inevitablemente resultará en más muertes y saqueo imperial para las masas de haitianos. En el peor de los casos, Kenia ve la intervención como una oportunidad fácil para servir a los 'amos' coloniales y obtener favor político y financiero."

¿Qué gana Kenia con ello? Una oportunidad para formar y mejorar los salarios de las fuerzas policiales locales y obtener una pátina de prestigio, o al menos la aprobación de Occidente. ¿Y para Haití? Golpes blancos de una mano negra y una mayor erosión de su soberanía.

BAP exige que Kenia rescinda su propuesta de enviar 1.000 policías a Haití, mientras hace un llamado al pueblo keniano para que se una a las masas haitianas y a las voces radicales de todo el mundo en la condena de la continua ocupación y gobernación de Haití por parte del Core Group y la ONU.

No a la ocupación. No a la intervención extranjera. No al imperialismo con rostro negro. Sí a la soberanía. Sí a una verdadera alianza panafricana entre el pueblo de Haití y Kenia.

Fotografía del encabezamiento: Agentes de policía patrullan una calle de Puerto Príncipe, la capital haitiana (cortesía de Marvens Compère/Haitian Times)

Black Alliance for Peace Once Again Calls on International Community To Reject U.S./U.N./CARICOM Plan for An Armed Intervention of Haiti

Black Alliance for Peace Once Again Calls on International Community To Reject U.S./U.N./CARICOM Plan for An Armed Intervention of Haiti

No to Foreign Militarism, Yes to Self-Determination!

For Immediate Release July 17, 2023

Media Contact: 

info@blackallianceforpeace.com 

(201) 292-4591

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is alarmed that representatives of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are at the forefront of the call for armed intervention in Haiti calling on Rwanda and Kenya to help lead the charge. Once again the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) calls on the international community to reject U.S., UN, and CARICOM plans for an armed intervention in Haiti. We have been consistent in our support for Haitian people who view the presence of the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) and the Core Group as a foreign occupation. Since 2004, they have suppressed Haiti’s independence and sovereignty. A U.S./UN-led armed foreign intervention in Haiti is not only illegitimate, but illegal. 

CARICOM has caved in to pressure from the Biden administration and now supports the US/UN plan to violently attack Haiti under the racist guise of humanitarian intervention. This stance reverses a position that many members of CARICOM held early this spring; at that time, the organization’s president and Prime Minister of Bahamas, Philip Davis, said that the Caribbean countries had no intention of sending forces to Haiti. BAP condemns CARICOM’s betrayal of the people of Haiti and their complicity in surrendering regional sovereignty to the U.S. and the Core Group’s undemocratic and imperialist aims.

And what was the argument advanced by U.S. officials concerning Haiti? We are told that the interest of the U.S. is humanitarian, that it wants to protect the Haitian people from gang violence. Yet, no mention has been made of the Haitian people’s constant call for the disbanding of the Core Group, for an arms embargo against the Haitian and U.S. elite who import guns into the country, for the end of support for Haiti’s installed puppet government, and for the deep financial crises placed on the people by the IMF-led move to remove fuel subsidies. There are no calls to build either hospitals or schools. And there are no efforts to provide asylum for the thousands of Haitians in the United States, Mexico – and the CARICOM countries themselves.

The call for an armed intervention of Haiti is not about humanitarianism. Indeed, as Erica Caines, co-coordinator of BAP’s Haiti/Americas Team, argues:

 “It is an ahistorical absurdity that U.S. officials would have any concerns about the lives of the Black people of Haiti. The U.S. has one agenda, and one agenda only, and that is to maintain its hegemonic control over the peoples and territories of the Caribbean and Latin America. The real reason for the violent intervention into Haiti by the U.S. with its European allies, is to shore-up the undemocratic and illegitimate government of Ariel Henry.”

It is understandable that unprincipled servants to white power like Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the U.S. House Democrats who attended the CARICOM meeting along with the warmongering U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, would advocate for an imperialist military assault into Haiti to prop-up its unelected puppet regime. But it is a sad day for the Caribbean that a majority of the Black heads of state in CARICOM have agreed to give political cover to this white power intervention against the dignity and rights of the Haitian people. As we said in our earlier letter to CARICOM, “We call on your countries to respect Haitian sovereignty and to support the Haitian masses in their stand against the ongoing occupation of their country by foreign powers.”

BAP, once again, is also compelled to call on the representatives of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to vote against any UNSC resolution sanctioning military force to Haiti.

In our initial communication with the representatives from Russia and China, we made it clear that, “in alignment with the wishes of the Haitian masses and their supporters, [we] absolutely stand against any foreign armed intervention in Haiti.” We further demand a stop to the unending meddling in Haitian affairs by the United States and Western powers. We hope that the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China will stand with the people of Haiti in its fight for liberation by voting NO on another military invasion to brutalize the long-suffering Haitian masses.

No to Occupation! No to Foreign Militarism! No to CARICOM Neocolonialism!

Yes to Self-Determination!

Banner photo: A man waves a red flag during a protest against fuel price hikes. [AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph]

Abolish the GILEE Program and Stop Cop City: A Statement From the Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta Citywide Alliance

The Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta Citywide Alliance (BAP-Atlanta), rooted in the legacy of anti-imperialist, anti-war, and pro-peace movements within the African/Black community, firmly denounces the ongoing exchange between the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Atlanta Police Leadership Institute, and the Israeli Occupying Forces, scheduled May 14-22nd, 2023—and the urban warfare training facility, Cop City.

As an empire conceived in settler-colonial violence, the United States continues to impose systems of militarized control upon African/Black, Indigenous, and Palestinian communities. This oppressive reality manifests itself through international interventions, such as the GILEE program, as well as domestic initiatives, like the proposed $90 million police-training facility, Cop City. Local residents and activists have been demanding an end to GILEE for many years.

GILEE's training exchange with the Israeli Occupying Forces disrespectfully falls during the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, the violent displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 invasion of Palestine by Zionist settlers, an event marked by the bloody, brutal, destructive ethnic cleansing and occupation of more than 500 Palestinian villages. This violent occupation continues today with the complete and unwavering support from the United States military-industrial-complex, particularly in military assistance. According to the 2022 Congressional Research Service Report:

“Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $150 billion (current, or noninflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. At present, almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance; from 1971 to 2007, Israel also received significant economic assistance.” 

The continued mass settler violence against Palestinians, and the proxy state supported by the United States for geopolitical reasons, has established an enduring legacy of conflict and injustice in the region, amid escalating violence against Palestinians. This disturbing reality illuminates the web of global imperialism and racial oppression that stretches from the occupied West Bank to Atlanta's neighborhoods.

Simultaneously, we face the Atlanta city government's insidious plot to lease 381 acres of stolen Muscogee (Creek) land, known as Weelaunee Forest, to the Atlanta Police Foundation. This massive proposed police training facility, Cop City, funded predominantly by taxpayers, is a brutal example of colonial-capitalist fascism in action. Designed to refine the tactics of urban warfare and repression, Cop City epitomizes the connections between white supremacy-fueled genocide, militarism and oppression. It threatens to expand the cycle of state-sanctioned violence and political repression upon working-class African/Black and Indigenous communities, and would further expand the GILEE program’s resources and capabilities. 

BAP-Atlanta asserts the unwavering link between the liberation struggles of African/Black and Indigenous peoples. We stand against the oppressive forces of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonization. We demand the immediate abolition of the GILEE program, a halt to the construction of Cop City and accountability for all acts of state-sanctioned violence.

Our collective human rights, our dignity and our very lives are at stake. We demand justice, transparency, and the immediate cessation of all activities contributing to the operation of GILEE and Cop City.

Abolish the GILEE program! 

Stop Cop City!

No Compromise, No Retreat!

BAP-Atlanta

bapatl@blackallianceforpeace.com

Banner photo: Senior GA police and public safety executives post for photo upon return from Police Executive Training in Israel (courtesy of news.gsu.edu)

BAP-DC Statement on Haitian Flag Day

First delivered on May 18, 2023, during a Haitian Flag Day demonstration in Washington, D.C., to answer the Haiti Action Committee’s call

BAP-DC, a citywide alliance in Washington, D.C., of the Black Alliance for Peace, extends warm and revolutionary greetings to the resilient working-class and poor people of Haiti on this 220th commemoration of Haitian Flag Day. We understand it was on this day, in 1803, that the Haitian people adopted their flag. Just six months later, the Haitian people defeated the enslavers and colonizers, ensuring their place in history as the first republic of African people in the world.

We understand the colonizers have persisted in oppressing Haiti, despite the Haitian people's victory 219 years ago. The people of Haiti have been forced to *quote* "repay" the slaveowners they defeated. Then they lived through coups, coup attempts, international bodies slapped together to claim authority over the island and over the Americas, as well as an insidious collaboration between the comprador class and Haiti's white elite. Despite all this, Haiti's poor and working-class people have stood on all ten toes, remaining vigilant in their quest for total liberation.

We also understand the role of the U.S. government in the oppression the Haitian people face today. It is why images of thousands of Haitians in the streets demanding an end to U.S./Canada/EU domination do not appear in the media that the people of the United States are mostly exposed to. It is why we only hear reports of so-called "gangs" made up of poor people, who somehow get access to guns, while being unable to afford shoes for their feet.

But that is why BAP-DC is here: To expose the contradictions and the hypocrisy of the Pan-European colonial-capitalist project from within the belly of the biggest empire in human history. We do this because we understand Haiti as the source of inspiration for liberation struggles throughout our Americas. And that is why BAP is spearheading an effort with key forces throughout the Americas to build a people(s)-centered Zone of Peace in our Americas.

And so we say: Hands off Haiti! Make our Americas a Zone of Peace! No compromise! No retreat! Forward ever! Backward never!

Banner photo: Battle of Vertières by Ulrick Jean-Pierre

BAP Demands a Thorough Investigation Into U.S. Involvement in the Assassination of Former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse

BAP Demands a Thorough Investigation Into U.S. Involvement in the Assassination of Former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse

MAY 11, 2023—The Haiti/Americas Team of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and BAP member organization, MOLEGHAF, request the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) launch a serious and in-depth investigation into the assassination of former Haitian de facto President Jovenel Moïse. We demand to know the truth concerning U.S. and other foreign countries’ complicity in plotting to kill Moïse, as well as to assassinate activists and ordinary Haitian citizens.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) recently published information based on newly obtained evidence from the ongoing U.S. prosecution of the alleged assassins. It reveals the seeming complicity of foreign embassies in Haiti, including those of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan.

The Haiti/Americas Team and MOLEGHAF, in addition, strongly denounce the recent U.S. attempts to have Brazil lead another military invasion and the occupation of Haiti. We also denounce efforts by defense contractor Wesley Clark to work with the unelected and illegitimate Ariel Henry to organize a paramilitary group in Haiti to “rival [Russia’s] Wagner Group.” The Haiti/Americas Team and MOLEGHAF are against Haiti being used as a geopolitical chess piece for the United States’ new Cold War ambitions.

BAP has always insisted the “crisis” in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism. In the past, the UNSC has served U.S. and Western imperialism’s interest by leading and supporting various unpopular UN missions in Haiti. We argue the UNSC has the responsibility to the Haitian people to investigate the role of foreign governments in destabilizing Haiti and creating a threat to international peace. But, more importantly, the international community has a responsibility to respect the sovereignty of the Haitian people and uphold the principle that the Haitian people and nation have the right to self-determination.

Hands off Haiti, respect international law, and support the call for democracy in Haiti and to make the “Americas” a Zone of Peace!

Banner photo: Assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse (photographer unknown)