The picture had started to form in Biden’s first 48 hours, but now it is crystal clear: The Biden-Harris administration intends to pick up exactly where the Obama-Biden administration left off in 2016, with an aggressive assertion of U.S. military power to offset its declining global economic, political and moral position.
All signals appear to be heading in that direction. The Atlantic Council, a right-wing structure that is a mouthpiece for NATO and the Western alliance, issued a 26,000 word screed against China, arguing for eventual war if regime change and other “containment” polices fail to coax China into surrendering to the United States. This is utter madness.
But it continues. In another highly publicized comment, Admiral Charles A. Richard warned, “There is a real possibility that a regional crisis with Russia or China could escalate quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons.”
The administration announced a few days ago it would undermine the peace process in Afghanistan by extending the presence of U.S. troops in that country, which essentially violates the terms of the agreement the United States had signed in 2020. It is clear Trump is not the only one who can reverse negotiated international agreements.
On February 7, the Biden administration announced it will not lift sanctions the United States had imposed on Iran after the Trump administration pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) unless Iran comes back into compliance. Since it was the United States that first violated the agreement by pulling out and then imposing sanctions, Iran is demanding the United States come into compliance first, which means new escalating tensions and a possible conflict with Iran.
Is this what the over 80 million people who voted for Biden wanted? Or does this imperialist war agenda of the ruling class demonstrate why, with the 2020 Democrat Party presidential debates and the debates between Trump and Biden, foreign policy received less than an hour of debate?
Public opinion for more than a decade has indicated a majority of the public, and particularly veterans and their families, support pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. But that information never makes it to the public via the “fact-based” liberal corporate press. Instead, the public is bombarded with the opinions of retired generals, foreign policy hacks and pro-war former intelligence officials explaining why peace is impossible.
The Biden administration even concedes war on Black and Brown communities must continue. And thus, he only is willing to make minor cosmetic changes to the Department of Defense’s 1033 program responsible for transferring tanks, armored personnel carriers, machine guns and all kinds of weapons of war from the federal government to police departments across the United States.
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) will not be silent while the public is being prepared for war domestically or abroad. That is why we are building resistance to Biden’s plan to continue the 1033 program and to undermine the Afghanistan peace process. We are promoting actions like our two petitions, which demand an end to the 1033 program, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and a peace deal to be concluded.
Join us in demanding peace in our communities and abroad. Oppose the neoliberal madness.
PRESS AND MEDIA
This week's episode of Voices With Vision kicks off African History Month with a bang with a master class on the very little known freedom fighter Ahmed Sekou Toure! But first our friend Jacqueline Luqman of Luqman Nation and BAP, exposes the American exceptionalist propaganda within the widely applauded Inauguration Day poem by Amanda Gorman. Then we caught up with Dr. Margaret Flowers, Director of Popularresistance.org and national coordinator of the Health Over Profit for Everyone Campaign to get her response to a recent interview in CounterSpin about the “troubling vaccine rollout” where she adds missing political context to the problem. For the main feature of this African History Month kick off Djibo Sobukwe of Black Alliance for Peace, and a former Central Committee member of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party who worked with Kwame Ture on the Political Education Committee, breaks down the contributions of Guinean independence leader and President, Ahmed Sékou Touré to the “philosophy of class struggle” and revolutionary ideology.
PACA organizer and BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman was interviewed on Radio Sputnik’s Fault Lines to discuss the Capitol Siege. The interview starts at about 70:50 into the program.
Netfa was also interviewed on WBAI News with Paul DeRienzo on NYC Mayor de Blasio's announcement to form police precinct community councils to play a role in the hiring of NYPD precinct commanders. The interview starts at about 23:10 into the program.
Black Agenda Report and BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley discusses the lovefest Biden is receiving from corporate media and even some radicals on Katie Halper’s podcast. Margaret was also featured on BAP member Solomon Commissiong’s podcast “Your World News.”
In an interview with journalist Ann Garrison, BAP national organizer Ajamu Baraka said the U.S. and the Western world is entering a new period of totalitarianism and the driving forces are not usual suspects, but the confluence of class forces that comprise the neoliberal state.
BAP members Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly and Jacqueline Luqman came together on the Luqman Nation internet show to discuss Amanda Gorman and the ongoing capitalist legitimation crisis in an episode titled “Capitalism & Democracy: The Myths We Keep Trying to Save.” Dr. Burden-Stelly is also a featured speaker discussing the question “Is Capitalism Anti-Black?”
BAP’s national organizer, Ajamu Baraka joined Kevin Pina on FlashForward along with Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin to discuss the Biden foreign policy and all the major issues of the week. Ajamu is also featured on Wilmer Leon’s Sirius XM show “Inside the Issues.”
Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik interviews Netfa for an anti-imperialist contextualization of the thousands fleeing the Central African Republic due to post election violence. The interview starts at about 45:18 into the program.
BAP member Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture speaks at a really organized by Workers World Party at Philadelphia City Hall. She begins at the 1:00:36 mark.
Tunde Osazua, Coordinator of BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) joined hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacqueline Luqman on “By Any Means Necessary,” to discuss the elections in Uganda.
Nnamdi Lumumba, who represents BAP member organization Ujima People’s Progress Party on BAP’s Coordinating Committee, discusses the party’s electoral work and declared on Dr. Jared Ball’s influential podcast “I Mix What I Like,” that electoral work had to be revolutionary because “as long as there’s a capitalist class that is wealthy, electoral politics is not set up to make a real difference in people’s lives.” Check out the recap on the Black Agenda Radio segment titled Black Political Party Puts Grassroots Organizing First.
EVENTS
February 9: Haiti Week at Vanderbilt University. Register here.
February 11: The Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership is hosting a training featuring Netfa called, “The Ballot and Community Control Over Police.” Register here.
February 18: BAP Black Power Educational Webinar Series: Malcolm X and the Black Internationalist Struggle for Peace and People(s)-Centered Human Rights. Register Here.
TAKE ACTION
Sign BAP petitions calling for an end to DOD 1033 and for support for peace in Afghanistan here.
Support Amazon workers organizing for representation. Saturday, February 20th -- National Day of Solidarity rally/leaflets at Amazon facilities. Click here for more information.
Dedan Waciuri, BAP Coordinating Committee member is being charged for inciting a riot and damaging government property. Sign this petition to demand charges be dropped.
Our brother, former political prisoner Jalil Muntaqim, faces the possibility of re-incarceration for filling out a voter registration form. Sign this petition to demand charges be dropped.
The Black Latina Girls and Women Fund was created by BAP member organization AfroResistance, a Black Latina women-led organization in the service of Black Latinx women in the Americas. This fund offers financial support by giving money directly to Black Latin womxn, girls and femmes who are experiencing severe financial need across the region, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether in Brazil, Colombia, United States or Panama, Black Latina girls, women, and femmes are organizing in their local communities in the fight against several forms of state violence. You can donate here and people are encouraged to use the hashtag #BlackLatinaGWFund.
Sign up to join BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network to receive the bi-weekly AFRICOM Watch Bulletin in your inbox.
Make sure you keep up with us throughout the week by subscribing to our YouTube channel, liking us on Facebook, and following us on Instagram and Twitter.
No Compromise, No Retreat!
Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Charisse, Dedan, Erica, Jaribu, Margaret, Netfa, Nnamdi, Paul, Rafiki
P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.
Photo credit: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images