BAP celebrated our sixth anniversary April 4 in the form that has defined our organization from its inception: We re-dedicated our movement-building work to the struggle for peace and authentic decolonization, as well as to the defeat of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination. That is why BAP launched a historic people(s)-centered campaign to make our region—the Americas—a “Zone of Peace.” This comes in response to a call made in 2014 by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Havana, Cuba, that the Americas (Nuestra América) transition into a region free from external militarism, war and imperialist subversion. The objective of the campaign is to build mass-based support for this state-centered call.  

Launch events took place in Havana, Cuba; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and Washington D.C., USA. 

BAP is committed to building popular support for the Zone of Peace demand along with a number of our key allies, such as SOLI of Puerto Rico; United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC); Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC) (Nicaragua); the U.S. Peace Council; MOLEGHAF (Haiti); Observatoria de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos (Mexico); the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations; the Organisation for Caribbean Empowerment; Alliance for Global Justice; and the Task Force on the Americas.

The launch of the campaign on April 4 came on the heels of BAP members supporting the National Day of Action Against Police Terror (see above) on March 9, organized by BAP member organization Community Movement Builders. Actions took place in more than 20 U.S. cities. Our members then pivoted (see below) to participate in the historic March 18 rally and demonstration that coincided with the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq that took place in Washington, D.C., in which BAP played a key role as a member of the national planning committee, along with the ANSWER Coalition and other organizations.

BAP members, along with our Solidarity Network, continue to reshape the character of anti-imperialist, anti-war and pro-peace work in the United States and beyond. With the launch of the Zone of Peace campaign, we answered the request of many non-U.S. organizations for BAP to expand its area of programmatic and organizing work beyond the borders of this settler-colonial state and beyond our work on AFRICOM.

2023 will be marked as a historic year, both for BAP and for anti-imperialist movement-building work in our region. And we continue to do it the old-fashioned way—through persistent and systematic organizing, person by person, community by community, peoples to peoples, guided by a plan informed by a principled stance against all forms of oppression and a laser-like focus on being rooted in working-class and colonized peoples.

BAP IN THE STREETS

On February 25, BAP-Atlanta (below) co-hosted with local radio station WRFG, “Black Power in Atlanta: A Teach-in on Black Misleadership, Militarism, Repression, and Internationalism." Check out more photos.

BAP-DC (below) welcomed the mayor and secretary of economics and rural affairs of the Colombian city of Buenaventura on the evening of February 28 in southeast Washington, D.C.

Over in Washington, D.C., BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action held a teach-in in the southeast as part of the National Day of Action Against Police Terror on March 9. It featured the Palestinian Youth Movement and Howard University students who presented on the U.S. Department of Defense’s $90 million deal to militarize the university. 

Actions BAP members took across the United States in places like Philadelphia and South Carolina can be found on Twitter.

BAP also hosted an online panel discussion that night, “Countering Colonial Policing in U.S. Domestic Colonies.”

BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley was the keynote speaker and a panelist at the 2023 Peace Summit (below), co-organized by student affiliates of BAP Solidarity Network member organization Chicago Area Peace Action on April 1 at Loyola University, Chicago. In the photo from left: BAP members Aaron and Akua; BAP Research and Political Education Team Co-Coordinator Noah; BAP Solidarity Network member Francis Lawrence; CC member Margaret; BAP Midwest Regional Coordinator Nicholas Richard-Thompson; BAP member organization All-African People’s Revolutionary Party representative Evelyn. Watch Margaret’s keynote address.

PRESS AND MEDIA

Video of the April 4th Washington D.C. press conference launching BAP’s people(s)-centered campaign for a “Zone of Peace” in our Americas can be viewed in its entirety on our very own Youtube channel.

On the April 4 episode of Voices With Vision, a radio program produced and hosted by BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman with Craig Hall and Latrice Vincent on WPFW (89.3 FM in Washington, D.C.), Austin Cole and Erica Caines, who led BAP’s Haiti/Americas Team delegation to Havana, spoke about the "Zone of Peace" campaign launch. On the show Johanna Fernandez, an organizer for the Campaign To Bring Mumia Home, spoke about the decision of Judge Lucretia Clemons to deny Mumia Abu Jamal a new trial, preceded by a commentary by Mumia speaking on the indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The episode includes the track “Contra Cultura” by Luis J. Rodriguez and “Freedom Today” by Jabbir and Derrick.

On Voices With Vision’s April 11 episode they talk with Comrade Imani Umoja who sits on the Central Committee of both the PAIGC in Guinea Bissau and BAP member organization the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, and serves on the Steering Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace's U.S. Out of Africa Network, about the U.S.-led Democracy Summit held in Zambia, March 28-30. This segment starts with the remarks of Dr. Fred M’membe, president of the Socialist Party in Zambia addressing the the Second International Forum on Democracy in Beijing about that “Summitt” and U.S. imperialist arrogance. Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report Executive Editor and Senior Columnist as well as BAP Coordinating Committee member, starts off the show breaking down the return of ”Trump Derangement Syndrome.” This episode includes the song, “Message To the Messengers” by Gil Scott-Heron.

BAP Coordinating Committee Chairperson Ajamu Baraka made remarks during the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations' February 18, 2023 online event, "FBI Attacks Because Black Is Back: History of FBI Attacks on the Black Liberation Movement." Lee Camp interviews Ajamu about The Rise of the Global South. As an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report, Ajamu wrote about how the “Commemorations of the Attack on Iraq March 20th and Libya March 19th Reaffirm that the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Remains the Greatest Threat to International Peace on our Planet.” BAP Solidarity Network member Margaret Flowers, who runs Popular Resistance, interviewed Ajamu about the Zone of Peace campaign.

A sample of media outlets that covered the campaign’s launch include: Prensa Latina, Radio Progreso, Canal Caribe, Acerca de la Red en Defensa de la Humanidad, Resumen Latinoamericano - English, Kawsachun News, Black Power Media (BPM) rebroadcast the D.C. press conference and BPM’s Remix Morning Show interviewed Erica Caines, and KPFA’s “Flashpoints” interviewed BAP Haiti/Americas Team member Carlos Sirah.

BAP Solidarity Network Co-Coordinator Julie Varughese also weighs in on that issue with her articles, “Zone of Peace’ Campaign Launched In 3 Countries to Build ‘People(s)-Centered Movement’ in the Americas” and “Renewed Peace Movement Lauded As Protesters Marched in Washington, D.C., on 20th Anniversary of U.S. Invasion of Iraq.” A must read is Julie’s International Women’s Alliance Uplifts Militant Grassroots Struggles in First U.S.-Based Conference, where Jacqueline Luqman gave a powerful keynote speech.

Ginger Root Productions published the video of BAP’s Margaret Kimberley’s keynote speech for the Chicago Area Peace Action Student-Led Peace Summit 2023 under the theme “Fighting the War Machine in Chicago and Beyond”. Margaret also spoke to the Counter-Summit for Democracy, held on April 2, 2023 and organized by Friends of Socialist China and the International Manifesto Group and was interviewed by CGTN about the Biden administration’s “Democracy Summit.” 

EVENTS

April 26: Topic of BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA)’s next Assata Shakur Study Group is, ”Understanding Elite Capture” from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. Participate in-person at Black Workers & Wellness Center, 2500 Martin Luther King, Jr., Ave., Washington, D.C. or for online, register here.

April 29: Latin America & the Caribbean Policy Forum is hosting, “In Search of a New U.S. Policy for a New Latin America: Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine,” at American University in Washington, D.C., from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. BAP Haiti/Americas Team Co-Coordinator Jemima Pierre will be one of three speakers on the panel, “Countering Militarism with Peace and Cooperation,” from 12:15-1:15 p.m. ET. Register here.

May 25: BAP member organization All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) invites the public to save the date for African Liberation Day. This year’s theme is “Imperialism and Neo-Colonialism Must Be Destroyed! Africans, Stand Ready for the Revolution.” This year's celebration will be virtual and the A-APRP with other organizations will also host in-person events in Baltimore and other cities. Please follow this link to find various African Liberation Day events around the world. 

June 23-25: BAP member organization Community Movement Builders will be hosting the “National Black Radical Organizing Conference” with the theme of “Unity in our Lifetime: Connecting the National Black Struggle for Self-Determination with Pan-Africanism.” Registration fee: $25. Register here. 



No Compromise, No Retreat!

Struggle to win,

Ajamu, Austin, Dedan, Erica, Jacqueline, Jaribu, Jemima, Julie, Margaret, Matt, Netfa, Nnamdi, Noah, Paul, Rafiki, Tunde and Yasmin

Coordinating Committee


P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.


Banner photo: The delegation of Black Alliance for Peace members holdng up a BAP banner in Havana.