Pandemic Reveals Crisis of U.S. Imperialism

Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford | Black Agenda Radio

“I think what we are looking at is a severely wounded, crippled U.S. imperialism as the chief hegemon of world capitalism,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. The coronavirus epidemic “brought the crisis of this economy into bold relief,” said Yeshitela, while China continued its rise “as a major contending force that was rapidly overtaking the US economy – and most of Europe,” as well. LISTEN HERE

Lynchings By Law

By: Aaron Greene, member of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) & a coordinator for the JLS Right2Vote Movement.

Contact: info@blackallianceforpeace.com

The U.S.  death penalty has always been a symbol of white supremacy and a violation of human rights law.  Having already executed 11 people this year, the Trump administration plans to execute five people (four of them Black) during a lame-duck session. This would be the first time a president has carried out executions during a lame-duck session since the Cleveland administration carried out the execution of an Indigenous man in 1890.

The profound anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells once said: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” She and many others advocated tirelessly to stop the lynching of Black children, women, and men. She was moved to this work after the People’s Grocery Lynching in 1892 when three Black men (Thomas Moss, Will Stewart, and Calvin McDowell) were lynched by a white mob while in police custody. This lit a fire in Ida as she could not sit idle while Black Blood was dripping from leaves across the country.

Ida B. Wells has been on my mind this week after learning that the Trump administration plans to execute five people before there is a change of power. Trump is the first president in 17 years to reinstate federal executions.  Since executions were permitted in July of 2020, 11 people have been put to death. This is more than any previous year in the 20th or 21st centuries.  Only three people had been executed by the federal government from 1970 to 2019.

The Trump administration is planning to continue this lynching by law. Below are five people that are scheduled to be executed:

• Brandon Bernard (Black Man) – Currently incarcerated in Terre Haute, Indiana. Brandon was 18 years old when first incarcerated and now is 40 years old. Brandon was only an accomplice to the alleged crime and five of the nine surviving jurors for his case no longer view the death penalty as a necessary punishment. Brandon would be the youngest executed in 70 years and his scheduled date of execution is December 10, 2020 (Human Rights Day).

  • Learn more about Brandon’s Case: https://www.helpsavebrandon.com

• Dustin Higgs (Black Man) – Currently incarcerated in Terre Haute, Indiana. Dustin was sentenced to death on January 3, 2001. Dustin was convicted as an accomplice to three murders in 1996, even though he actually did not pull the trigger, but was guilty by association under the so-called law of parties theory. He is scheduled to be executed on January 15, 2021, which would be the last federal execution carried out by the Trump Administration. January 15, 2020, is the birth date of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr.

  • Learn more about Dustin’s Case here: http://www.savedustinjhiggs.com

• Lisa Montgomery (White Woman) – Currently incarcerated in Forth Worth, Texas. Lisa was sentenced to death on October 22, 2007. Lisa suffers from severe mental illness and experienced relentless physical, emotional, and sexual abuse including being trafficked by her own mother. She is the only woman under a federal death sentence and would be the first woman executed in 70 years. Execution date of January 12, 2021.

  • Learn more about Lisa’s case here: https://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/project/savelisa/

• Cory Johnson (Black Man) – Currently incarcerated in Terre Haute, Indiana. Cory was sentenced to death in 1993. His lawyers have continuously argued that he suffers from an intellectual disability, which should prohibit him from being executed under federal law. Cory is one of the longest serving people now on federal death row. His execution date is January 14, 2020.

  • Learn more about Cory’s case here.

• Alfred Bourgeois (Black Man) – Currently incarcerated in Terre Haute, Indiana. Alfred was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002. Alfred is intellectually disabled and should be constitutionally ineligible for the death penalty. He is scheduled to be executed on December 11, 2020.

  • On December 2, 2020, Alfred Bourgeois attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of Dec. 11 scheduled federal execution and review of intellectual disability claim. Read the press release, cert petition, stay motion here.

If these five executions are carried out, the Trump administration will have executed 16 people in 6 months.  This reality should serve as a reminder that the Ku Klux Klan not only wears white robes, masks, and carries shotguns but also wears fake smiles, tailored suits, and utilizes a legislative pens. With this terror of violence weighing on our communities, one must ask the same question Ida B. Wells asked some decades ago: “Where are our “leaders” when the race is being burnt, shot, and hanged? Holding good fat offices and saying not a word.”  Where are our leaders when Brandon Bernard is scheduled to be executed on Human Rights Day?  Where are our leaders when this administration plans to execute the youngest person in 70 years and the first women in 70 years?  Where are our leaders when five nooses have been positioned once again on the United States Bloody Oak Tree? Where are our leaders to declare and exemplify that Black Lives in Prison Matter? Where are our leaders to affirm that all life is precious and that a civilized state should not engage in ritualized murder posing as justice?

Organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations must not remain mostly silent but instead should urgently resist all five executions and also highlight the contradiction of Brandon Bernard being scheduled to be executed on International Human Rights Day. As Attorney Jaribu Hill has stated: “The death penalty is the ultimate human rights violation.”  Organizations like the NAACP should stop practicing leadership by avoidance but instead should walk in the prophetic tradition of its’ cofounder Ida B. Wells by shining light on this grave injustice and organizing urgent actions. Leaders should stop begging President elect Joe Biden for highchairs in his administration, but instead should pressure him to take an aggressive stance to prevent these five executions. Joe Biden is not an innocent bystander, he is the author of the 1994 Crime Bill which included, the Death Penalty Act, this created 60 new federal death penalty crimes.

The execution of five people is on the docket, but we still have time to resist these scheduled lynchings by law. We have a responsibility to respond with resounding action whenever we see the Blood on the Leaves. The Lynching Tree and Execution by law are all interconnected as weapons of terror used in an attempt to silence the oppressed. We cannot be silent but must stand with our backs straight demanding that these lives be saved.

 What can you do to help? Below are actions you can take to raise awareness:

• Take Action here to help Brandon Bernard.

• Take Action here to help Dustin Higgs.

• Take Action here to help Lisa Montgomery.

• Take Action here to help Cory Johnson.

• Take Action here to help Alfred Bourgeois.

Photo credit: Pat Sullivan/AP

AFRICOM: Deadly Deception

AFRICOM: Deadly Deception

By Friends of Congo

Published Oct. 7, 2020 in Black Agenda Report

AFRICOM's real aim was never peace nor stability but rather, strategic US interests.

“With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the resistance to AFRICOM became exceedingly difficult.”

On October 1, 2007, the United States under the presidency of George W. Bush and the military leadership of the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, launched the Africa Command (AFRICOM). The command was based in Stuttgart, Germany. In the same vein as the 1884/85 Berlin Conference, AFRICOM was a wholly external concoction to be imposed on Africans without their input or consent. In fact, when African leaders first heard of the establishment of an African command, they overwhelmingly rejected its intent to expand U.S. military presence on the African continent. Even during President Bush's trip to the continent in 2008, African leaders roundly rejected US military expansion  on the continent. The only country that was amenable to the presence of AFRICOM on African soil was Liberia under the leadership of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. 

Although Bush appointed Morgan State University graduate, Kip Ward, an African American four-star general to head up AFRICOM and continued to claim that the intent of AFRICOM was not to establish US military bases in Africa, he still faced stiff resistance. Kip Ward waxed eloquently  about AFRICOM being established to support humanitarian assistance efforts in Africa, build wells and prevent conflict.

“African leaders first overwhelmingly rejected an expanded U.S. military presence on the African continent.”

In order for otherwise reasonable and critical people to buy the deception of the US military having as its main aim humanitarian assistance support and peace and stability in Africa, they have to already subscribe to certain preconceived notions about Africa and Africans. In essence, the US military has traded in the notion that Africa is a poor continent in need of charity. The opposite is true -- Africa is a rich continent, in fact the richest continent on the planet in natural resources that has been plundered for the past 500 years, starting with the trafficking in African bodies and today with the super exploitation of oil, copper, cobalt, coltan, diamonds, gold, bauxite, timber and myriad other natural riches. The charity propaganda combined with the command being led by a Black man and then to be championed by a Black president with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the resistance to AFRICOM became exceedingly difficult. The path was cleared under the Obama presidency to the point where the US military presence on the African continent expanded nearly 2,000 percent  under his presidency. In addition, under the Obama administration with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and Susan Rice as US Ambassador to the United Nations, AFRICOM led the bombing of Libya in cahoots with NATO to effect "regime change" in Libya by removing Muammar Gaddafi from power. Hillary Clinton infamously stated on her visit to Libya after the murder of Gaddafi, “We came, we saw, he died.”

Today, Libya and the surrounding countries in the Sahel, particularly Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali are a living hell due to the fall out from the Nato/AFRICOM bombing campaign and subsequent government overthrow in Libya. 

“AFRICOM led the bombing of Libya in cahoots with NATO.”

Should one make an objective assessment of one of AFRICOM's signature claims at its inception –- “to bring stability and assist in advancing peace and stability in Africa” -- one would have to conclude that AFRICOM has been an abject failure. However, knowledgeable people know that AFRICOM's real aim was never peace nor stability but rather, strategic interests. The United States uses its military throughout the globe to bring about full spectrum domination and Africa is no exception. A case in point is the United States' recent push to acquire permission from Kenya to conduct drone strikes  in its territory. Should Somalia serve as an example or model where US drone strikes have killed civilians, Kenyans would be forewarned to categorically reject this request from the US.

This article previously appeared in the Friends of Congo blogspot.

Why We Focus on Africa

Why We Focus on Africa

By the Black Alliance for Peace

Published Sept. 30, 2020 in Black Agenda Report

With reports each week of yet another Black victim of police violence, there is for many an ever-growing desperation. As activists search for a way forward, Africa’s plight does not find its way on to the movement agenda. But there is good reason to be concerned about what goes on in Africa. The problems there and the problems here are related.

Africa has long been the focus of foreign exploitation of the continent’s land, resources, and people. As everyone knows, Africans find themselves in the Western Hemisphere because of slavery and its exploitation of the labor of those who were enslaved. But the interest in Africa of those foreign to that continent was not limited to human trafficking. There was an even greater interest in Africa’s gold, diamonds, cobalt, oil, and other natural resources too numerous to list.

Because Africa was colonized by western capitalist interests and robbed of its wealth, Africans resisted and drove the colonizers from the continent, or so they thought. In the years since independence came to Africa, it has become painfully clear that European colonizers have managed to retain their grip on the continent by various means, including the manipulation of corrupt African public officials.

The United States always had its hand in the exploitation of Africa, but it has never been widely regarded as a colonizer. The U.S. likes it that way because it is helpful to its global image as a benevolent justice-loving democratic nation. However, under cover of darkness the U.S. has played a leading role in maintaining an iron western grip on Africa.

Observers note that in 2019, U.S. Special Operations Forces were deployed in 22 African countries, and in recent years these troops engaged in active combat in at least 13. In addition to direct combat, U.S. military forces conduct joint training operations with the military forces of most of the countries on the African continent. These operations are carefully designed to serve U.S. interests. If the interests of the host African countries are also served, it is coincidental. All of this military activity is sponsored and coordinated by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

The public statements made by AFRICOM about its work are crafted to portray the command as an armed Peace Corps that digs wells, delivers medicine, and builds hospitals while simultaneously protecting African villages from international terrorists. The reality is that the mission is to advance and protect the operations of western corporations. When it comes to that job the U.S. is eclipsed only by the French.

France has maintained an active and aggressive military presence in Africa for years, and the U.S. has been an enthusiastic supporter. AFRICOM makes no secret of this fact. Its commander said, “France is the United States’ oldest ally, and a leader in the counterterrorism fight in Africa. We share common threats, mutual concerns, and a commitment to fighting violent extremist organizations.” That comment translated means the U.S. teams with France to protect western corporate interests and brands anyone who gets in their way a terrorist. This can sometimes have fatal consequences.

In 2017, four U.S. soldiers were killed in Niger. The reason for their presence in that country was not clearly explained by the Pentagon, but it is likely that their mission was related to the fact that for decades the French company Areva has mined uranium in Niger for French consumption and established extensive operations in the Nigerien town of Arlit. In 2013, France began to fear attacks on these facilities, and they deployed troops to protect them. The U.S. had troops in the region too, probably to assist the French. Four soldiers paid the price with their lives.

Libya, too, was the site of French and U.S. military meddling that ultimately plunged the country into total violent chaos. The objective was to frustrate the late Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s efforts to establish a Pan-African currency (that would devalue the French franc); and, to gain control of Libya’s oil fields.

Western domination of Africa’s wealth by military force hurts Africa, but it also hurts African people in the U.S. Although many harbor stale beliefs that the people of Africa care nothing about their stolen African family members in the United States, the contrary was proven dramatically by Africa’s outpouring of support and solidarity in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder. Imagine the changes that would have occurred if those demonstrations of support had been accompanied by financial support to the movement, diplomatic arm-twisting and economic pressure. Africa cannot demonstrate that type of independence and power because the entire continent has a giant U.S. military boot on its neck. It falls to those of us who are up-close and personal to AFRICOM to untie the laces of that boot and cause the U.S. military operations in Africa to trip and crash.

This is what we intend with the International Day of Action on AFRICOM and our ongoing campaign to shut down AFRICOM.

The International Day of Action on AFRICOM (October 1, 2020) aims to raise the public's awareness about the U.S. military's existence in Africa, and how the presence of U.S. forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent. The Black Alliance for Peace calls on our friends to endorse this day as an individual or organization and to organize an educational event, for which we have provided materials on our webpage: https:/.blackallianceforpeace.com/DayOfActionOnAFRICOM

Porqué Nos Centramos en África

Porqué Nos Centramos en África

Escrito por la Alianza Negra Por La Paz

Publicado el 30 de septiembre de 2020 en Black Agenda Report

https://www.blackagendareport.com/why-we-focus-africa

África no puede manifestar su independencia y poder porque todo el continente tiene una gigantesca bota militar estadounidense en el cuello.

"La presencia de las fuerzas estadounidenses exacerba la violencia y la inestabilidad en todo el continente"

Las noticias de una nueva víctima Negra de la violencia policial cada semana, desatan una desesperación para muchas personas que aumenta sin cesar. Mientras los activistas buscan un camino para avanzar, la difícil situación de África no encuentra su camino en la agenda de este movimiento. Sin embargo, hay motivo suficiente para preocuparse por lo que sucede en África. Los problemas de allí y los de aquí están relacionados.

El continente africano ha sido durante mucho tiempo el centro de la explotación extranjera de su tierra, sus recursos y su gente. Como es bien conocido, los africanos se encuentran en el Hemisferio Occidental debido a la esclavitud y la explotación del trabajo de aquellos que fueron esclavizados. Pero el interés por África de los extranjeros al continente no se limitó a la trata de personas. Hubo un interés aún mayor en su oro, su diamantes, su cobalto, su petróleo y otros recursos naturales demasiado numerosos para enumerarlos.

Debido a que África fue colonizada por intereses capitalistas occidentales y la despojaron de su riqueza, los africanos resistieron y expulsaron a los colonizadores del continente, o eso creyeron. En los años transcurridos desde que África alcanzó la independencia, ha quedado claro lamentablemente que los colonizadores europeos han logrado mantener su control sobre el continente por diversos medios, incluida la manipulación de funcionarios públicos africanos corruptos.

"Los africanos resistieron y expulsaron a los colonizadores del continente, o eso creyeron"

Estados Unidos siempre ha extendido sus garras para la explotación de África, pero nunca se le ha considerado generalmente como un colonizador. Los EE. UU. han estado encantados con esta percepción porque es útil para su imagen global como una nación democrática benevolente y amante de la justicia. Sin embargo, cobijados en la oscuridad, los Estados Unidos han desempeñado un papel de liderazgo en el mantenimiento de un férreo control occidental sobre África.

Algunos observadores señalan que en 2019, se desplegaron las Fuerzas de Operaciones Especiales de EE. UU en 22 países africanos, y en los últimos años estas tropas participaron en combate activo en al menos 13 países. Además del combate directo, las fuerzas militares de EE. UU realizan operaciones de entrenamiento conjuntas con las fuerzas militares de la mayoría de los países del continente africano. Estas operaciones están cuidadosamente diseñadas para servir a los intereses estadounidenses. Si sirven al mismo tiempo a los intereses de los países africanos anfitriones, es pura coincidencia.

Toda esta actividad militar está patrocinada y coordinada por el Comando para África de Estados Unidos (AFRICOM).

Las declaraciones públicas difundidas por AFRICOM sobre sus funciones están diseñadas para ofrecer un perfil del este Comando como un Cuerpo de Paz armado que cava pozos, distribuye medicinas y construye hospitales al mismo tiempo que protege a las aldeas africanas de los terroristas internacionales. La realidad es que su misión es promover y proteger las operaciones de las corporaciones occidentales. Cuando se trata de ese trabajo, Estados Unidos solo está eclipsado por los franceses.

"Su misión es promover y proteger las operaciones de las corporaciones occidentales"

Francia ha mantenido una presencia militar activa y agresiva en África durante años, entre tanto, Estados Unidos ha sido un adepto entusiasta. AFRICOM no oculta este hecho. Su comandante dijo: “Francia es el aliado más antiguo de Estados Unidos y un líder en la lucha antiterrorista en África. Compartimos amenazas comunes, preocupaciones mutuas y el compromiso de luchar contra las organizaciones extremistas violentas”. Ese comentario traducido significa que Estados Unidos se asocia a Francia para proteger los intereses corporativos occidentales y tildar a cualquiera que se interponga en su camino como terrorista. A veces, esto tiene consecuencias fatales.

“Estados Unidos se asocia a Francia para proteger los intereses corporativos occidentales”

En 2017, cuatro soldados estadounidenses fueron asesinados en Níger. El Pentágono no explicó claramente el motivo de su presencia en ese país, pero es probable que su misión estuviera relacionada con el hecho de que durante décadas la empresa francesa Areva ha extraído uranio en Níger para consumo francés y ha establecido amplias operaciones en la nigeriana ciudad de Arlit. En 2013, Francia comenzó a temer ataques a estas instalaciones y desplegó tropas para protegerlas. Estados Unidos también tenía tropas en la región, probablemente para ayudar a los franceses. Cuatro soldados pagaron el precio con sus vidas.

Libia también fue el escenario de la intromisión militar francesa y estadounidense que finalmente sumió al país en un caos total y violento. El objetivo era frustrar los esfuerzos del fallecido líder libio Muammar Gadhafi por establecer una moneda panafricana (que devaluaría el franco francés); y hacerse con el control de los campos petroleros de Libia. 

La dominación occidental sobre la riqueza de África impuesta por la fuerza militar perjudica a África, pero también a los africanos de los EE. UU. Aunque muchos albergan viejas creencias de que a la gente de África no le importan los miembros de su familia africana expoliados en los Estados Unidos, los africanos demostraron lo contrario radicalmente a juzgar por la efusión de apoyo y solidaridad tras el asesinato de George Floyd. Imagínemos los cambios que se hubieran producido, si esas manifestaciones de apoyo hubieran estado acompañadas de apoyo financiero al movimiento, y de presiones diplomáticas y económicas. África no puede hacer alarde de ese tipo de independencia y poder porque todo el continente tiene una gigantesca bota militar estadounidense en el cuello. Nos corresponde a aquellos de nosotros que estamos frente a frente con el AFRICOM desatar los cordones de esa bota y hacer que las operaciones militares de Estados Unidos en África tropiecen y se estrellen.

Esto es lo que pretendemos con el Día Internacional de Acción sobre AFRICOM y nuestra campaña en curso para acabar con AFRICOM.

El Día Internacional de Acción sobre AFRICOM (1 de octubre de 2020) tiene como objetivo concienciar al público sobre la existencia de un ejército estadounidense en África y cómo esta presencia de fuerzas estadounidenses agudiza la violencia y la inestabilidad en todo el continente. Hacemos un llamamiento a nuestros amigos para que apoyen este día individualmente o como organización a fin de que se prepare un evento educativo, para lo cual hemos proporcionado materiales en nuestra página web: blackallianceforpeace.com/dayofactiononafricom

Traducido para UMOYA por Nuria Blanco de Andres, Madrid 30 Septiembre 2020

Expanding Monstrous US Drone War to Kenya is Bi-Partisan Madness

By Netfa Freeman | Black Agenda Report

The absence of a domestic backlash against US Africa policy is testament to the blind spots of our movement.

Instead of being a remnant of its past, US genocidal repression, labor exploitation and resource plundering against Indigenous and African (Black) people now extends to peoples across the planet. The tyranny of US racial capitalism over Black people stretches to the African motherland, without the bat of an eye by Black misleaders. READ MORE

Freedom Rider: Losers, Suckers and War

By Margaret Kimberley | Black Agenda Report

Democrats are up in arms over Trump’s latest mouth-burst, but the truth is that both corporate parties have made the people suckers for endless, “bipartisan” wars.

Americans certainly love war. Most will deny having those feelings, they will instead talk about warfare as a means of protecting freedom, spreading democracy or fighting tyrants. The end result of course is mass death, mostly of people in far away and non-white lands, but also of significant numbers of Americans. The carnage is usually downplayed in favor of worshipping those who go to kill and perhaps be killed themselves. This twisted dynamic is most visible when anyone dares to question the narrative of exceptionalism and benevolent warriors. READ MORE

AFRICOM Crying Russia in Libya: A Pot and Kettle Syndrome

By Netfa Freeman | Black Agenda Report

The US waged unprovoked war against Libya and has militarily occupied Africa, but is still singing its old song that Russia is the aggressor on the continent.

Despite its diminishing global heft, the US remains a superpower of hypocrisy. These days when it comes to Russia one can get a case study on US imperialism simply by inversing the accusations Washington levels against that country. READ MORE

Community Control of the Police - and a Whole Lot More

By Glen Ford | Black Agenda Report

Abolition of the police begins with community control, in which community representatives not only hire, fire and oversee the cops, but decide the nature of the policing that is necessary and acceptable.

The wave of people’s protests across the nation, backed by solidarity actions in cities around the world, has caused the corporate oligarchy and its servants to make promises they can’t keep and give lip service to programs they have always resisted. READ MORE

Turkish Media Interviews Ajamu Baraka on George Floyd Protests

Click here and scroll to pages 6-7 for an interview in Turkish with BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka.

First Somali Congressperson Legitimizes AFRICOM and US Drone War

By Tunde Osazua and Netfa Freeman | Black Agenda Report

Rep. Omar recently commended the US war machine for increasing the “transparency” and “accountability” of its bombing of her native country.

United States representatives, no matter their racial or ethnic backgrounds, appear unable to perceive the inherent white supremacy in the notion that the US has some altruistic responsibility to police the continent of Africa with military troops and supervisors. As a result, "people of color," such as the Somali-"American" Congresswoman IIhan Omar provide political and moral cover to the presence of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the dubious claims about “US interests” on the continent. READ MORE

The Makings of A Capitalist Dystopia

By Erica Caines | Black Agenda Report

Colonized people, with a horrific historical connection to both science and medicine in this country, must examine science in service of the state.

As the days of the pandemic tick by, we are witnessing overwhelming evidence that the U.S. is using COVID-19 as an instrument to institute a capitalist dystopia. But this is no blockbuster Hollywood film. This is today’s new potential reality through the national security state apparatus. While there is no denying that people are suffering (and dying) from COVID-19 and neoliberal austerity, we must be acutely aware that the state’s reaction is not protecting us from the virus. READ MORE

Open Letter to the Government of the United States and the United Nations

Read and sign the petition here.

Open Letter to the Government of the United States and the United Nations

Mr. Donald J. Trump
President of the United States

Mr. António Guterres
Secretary General of the United Nations

The global spread of COVID-19 has exposed the illegal and immoral practice of imposing unilateral coercive measures (economic sanctions) by the United States government against more than thirty nations. The government of the United States is now using the public distraction caused by the pandemic to intensify its military actions against the targeted nations.

The economic war against those nations had already resulted in unimaginable suffering of the people in the targeted nations even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the devastation of the global pandemic, the targeted countries — especially Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria and Zimbabwe — are finding it prohibitively difficult to protect and save the lives of their citizens in the face of the ongoing global emergency. These sanctions constitute crimes against humanity.

As a concerned citizen of the world, I call upon the United States government to:

1. End its economic sanctions against all targeted countries immediately.

2. Unfreeze the financial assets and bank accounts of the targeted countries so that they can purchase and receive the necessary food, medicine and medical equipment and supplies needed to combat the pandemic.

3. Stop all military threats and actions against the targeted countries, including the removal of U.S. Navy warships dispatched to Venezuela under the false pretense of “War on Drugs.”

4. Drop the baseless charge of “Drug Trafficking” against President Nicolás Maduro and other officials of the government of Venezuela.

5. Respect the call issued by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, for a global ceasefire.

I call upon the Secretary General of the United Nations and the leading bodies of the United Nations to invoke the articles of the UN Charter to demand respect for international law by the government of the United States.

I also call upon the UN Security Council to lift all UN-imposed sanctions against those countries as well.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Black People Fight Back! Webinar April 11 & 12

On April 11 and 12th, the Black is Back Coalition for Peace, Social Justice and Reparations will host a national Zoom-based webinar to build resistance to both the short-term COVID-19 crisis and the longer-term struggle to defeat the colonial/capitalist system that reproduces the conditions and relations of exploitation and oppression generation after generation.

BAP is a member of the Black is Back Coalition, and our National Organizer, Ajamu Baraka, will be a featured speaker. The event will be over two days and will begin at 10am EST on April 11th and 12th. You can register for the Zoom webinar here and find more information here.

Days of Action Against Sanctions & Economic War - March 13–15, 2020

Sanctions Kill!  

Sanctions are War!

End Sanctions Now!

Sanctions are imposed by the United States and its junior partners against countries that resist their agendas. They are a weapon of Economic War, resulting in chronic shortages of basic necessities, economic dislocation, chaotic hyperinflation, artificial famines, disease, and poverty. In every country, the poorest and the weakest – infants, children, the chronically ill and the elderly – suffer the worst impact of sanctions.

US imposed sanctions, violate international law and are a tool of regime change. They impact a third of humanity in 39 countries. They are a crime against humanity used, like military intervention, to topple popular governments and movements. They provide economic and military support to pro-US right-wing forces.

The US economic dominance and its +800 military bases worldwide demands all other countries participate in acts of economic strangulation. They must end all normal trade relations, otherwise they risk having Wall Street’s guns pointed at them. The banks and financial institutions that are responsible for the devastation of our communities at home drive the plunder of countries abroad.

Many organizations have been fighting Sanctions and Economic War for some time. NOW is an opportunity to combine efforts to raise consciousness on this crucial issue. This broad campaign will include protests and demonstrations, lobbying, petition drives and all forms of educational efforts.

As an initial step for this campaign we encourage mobilizations and educational efforts to be organized for the International Days of Action against US imposed Sanctions and Economic War on March 13-15.

Please add your endorsement and help spread the word.

If the Left Doesn't Critique Endless War, Who Will?

“We must raise the issues of war and imperialism in electoral politics in this country,” even if the Democrats don’t, said BAR senior columnist Margaret Kimberley, speaking at the annual conference of UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition. “In the debates, foreign policy is discussed very little, and when it is they all sound the same, even those who are supposed to be progressive,” said Kimberley. READ MORE

Former UN Rapporteur on Human Rights: US Sanctions Have Killed More Than 100 Thousand Venezuelans

Orinoco Tribune

The Swiss-American historian and Human Rights expert, Alfred de Zayas, said that more than 100,000 Venezuelans have died as a result of the sanctions implemented by the United States government and that such deaths were due to the impossibility of timely access to medicines.

De Zayas, who served as an independent expert for the United Nations Human Rights Council for the promotion of an international democratic and egalitarian order, participated on Wednesday in the forum “Unilateral Coercive Measures as a crime against humanity: The case of Venezuela”, held in Geneva, Switzerland, and which was attended by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, as well as other academics specializing in international law. READ MORE

The World Demands U.S. Out of the Middle East - Will the U.S. Listen?

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers | Black Agenda Report

American troops in Iraq are at increasing risk every day the US stays in that sovereign nation.

The world is saying no to war with Iran and US out of the Middle East. Hundreds of protests were held in the United States and around the world on Saturday with a unified voice of “No War.” These protests are in solidarity with massive protests in Iraq calling for the US to get out, where it is now an occupying force as the government has asked it to leave.

These protests and the uprising over the US remaining in Iraq are not being covered in the US corporate media. Millions of people participated in the memorials for General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes after the US assassinated them. Now, millions have protested the refusal of the US to leave Iraq. The Pentagon knows the reality is that US troops in Iraq are at increasing risk every day the US stays in that sovereign nation. READ MORE

Drop All Charges! Against Venezuela Embassy Protectors

Trump Prosecutors Make Move to Ensure that Embassy Protectors are Convicted

By Ajamu Baraka | Black Agenda Report

Trump’s prosecutors are trying to suppress the facts of the US attempted coup in Venezuela, and railroad the Embassy Protectors to prison.

As the trial approaches, the lawyers for the Trump Administration’s  prosecution of the four Venezuelan Embassy Protectors who were arrested last May are asking the court to make sure the jury is kept ignorant about the facts and circumstances surrounding the actions of the protectors.

In a recently filed motion by government lawyers, state prosecutors are seeking to severely restrict what can be discussed during the trial scheduled for February 11, 2020. Judge Beryl Howell will hear arguments on the motion at the pre-trial hearing on January 29. READ MORE