Ruling-class newspapers like The New York Times may try to spin the U.S. invasion of Africa as only expanding under Trump.
Yet it was Barack Obama who dramatically increased AFRICOM operations. The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) launched a few months before he took office. Most African states had expressed significant opposition to AFRICOM until the United States and NATO attacked and destroyed the Libyan state in 2011. That war forced other African countries to confront the possibility of an invasion ruining their countries, too. Today, 53 out of 54 African countries keep military-to-military relationships with the United States. But let's be clear: AFRICOM wasn’t established to fight so-called “terrorism”, but to continue the neo-colonial process of extracting Africa's resources and keeping out potential infrastructure-development partners like China.
This is why the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is launching the U.S. Out of Africa! campaign on AFRICOM’s 10th anniversary, coming up on October 1. To find out how you can get involved in defeating the war on Africa, sign up for U.S, Out of Africa! updates.
Although the U.S. ruling class tries to co-opt September 11 as only the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., it is also remembered as the anniversary of another massacre. BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka discussed the impact of the 1973 U.S.-aided military coup of Chile that tortured, disappeared and executed tens of thousands of Chilean leftists. What is happening now with the United States having met with counter-revolutionary plotters for a year in its attempt to intervene in Venezuela looks eerily similar.
It is because of U.S. crimes against humanity that the United States faces prosecution in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for torturing detainees in Afghanistan. It also defended settler-colonial ally Israel’s abuse of Gazans. Of course, the short-sighted bully that it is, the United States has only inflamed matters by threatening sanctions on ICC judges and prosecutors.
A documentary exposing Israel’s attack on the Black Lives Matter movement for its support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign proves Black internationalism is a threat to the global structure of oppression.
We recommend you read a review of a book for which Ajamu wrote a foreward called “The Einstein File: The FBI’s Secret War Against the World’s Most Famous Scientist”.
Russia says the United States dropped white phosphorus on Syria. This is interesting because that means the United States is using chemical weapons. Are we surprised? Perhaps this will mark the start of WWIII. We hope not.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) marked its 70th anniversary this week. BAP supports the right of the people of the DPRK to determine their national direction.
Please also try to attend these events:
BAP is hosting another AFRICOM panel, this time in Atlanta on September 20 at Morehouse College. BAP member organizations Pan-African Community Action and Friends of the Congo have endorsed this event, along with Morehouse's African American Studies Department.
BAP endorsed the Days of Action Against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba and related film screenings.
Come out Saturday for the annual Brooklyn-Wide March Against Gentrification, Racism and Police Violence taking place in New York City. BAP has endorsed this march. Please RSVP and participate!
BAP has also endorsed the International Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crimes on Puerto Rico, being held October 27 in New York City. This tribunal needs endorsements, donations and publicity.
No compromise.
No retreat.
Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret, Netfa, Paul, Vanessa and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace
P.S. Help us organize against the U.S. empire by contributing today toward our first membership meeting!