The United States Department of Defense has carved up the map of the earth into eleven unified combatant commands. The U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND, or SOUTHCOM, is one of these combatant commands. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) understands that SOUTHCOM works to extend US military influence throughout the Americas and to promote militarism in line with US interests relying on spurious claims of “humanitarian assistance/disaster relief” and counter-narcotics operations to increase U.S. control over the region. Every year, SOUTHCOM uses “humanitarian assistance exercises” and disaster response efforts as military training platforms.
The Black Alliance for Peace stands against the growing influence and power of SOUTHCOM, and the ever-increasing militarization of the region. We call for an international “Zone of Peace” in the Americas. On January 29, 2014, in Havana, Cuba, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) declared the Caribbean and Latin America to be a “Zone of Peace.” BAP is leading an effort to revive the civil society element of this state-centered declaration by popularizing the declaration and building popular support across the region.
We are holding this webinar on May 18th, which is Haitian Flag Day. Haitian Flag day celebrates the action by revolutionary leader, Jean Jacques Dessalines, who ripped out the white part of the French flag to cement a liberated and revolutionary nation. The region would not have been decolonized without the liberation of Haiti.
Speakers:
Jesus ‘Chucho’ Garcia, Fundacion Afroamerica Y Diaspora Africana
Erica Caines, BAP Haiti and the Americas Team co- Coordinator, co-editor of Hood Communist
Kimberly Dawn Miller, PhD candidate in Global and Sociocultural Studies at FIU and Afro-indigenous cultural expression in the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica.
Shaun Ajamu Hutchinson, Editor, Caribbean Empowerment Blog
Moderator: Peter James Hudson, Associate Professor of African American Studies and Department of History, UCLA
Closed captions and interpretation into Spanish, Portuguese, and French will be available