Since 1981, September 21st has been used to focus and re-dedicate global efforts toward achieving peace. But like many days created by the United Nations and global civil society to reflect the highest values and aspirations of collective humanity, the struggle for peace has been soiled by the moral hypocrisy of global oppressors.
Those states see peace as a threat. In the United States, 83-year-old Dr. W.E.B. Dubois was branded a criminal in 1951 for being the director of the Peace Information Center. In 1967, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asserted racism, materialism and militarism were maladies of U.S. society that, if not corrected, would result in a spiritual death for the United States. When the Black Liberation Movement embraced an anti-imperialist and anti-war position and Dr. King correctly identified the United States as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, brutal repression took place—his life was taken and the movement was smashed. Today, peace activists and the peace movement are relegated to the fringes of political discourse, making direct repression unnecessary.
But, as Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton said, you can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) took up the historic task to fight for peace and human rights on April 4, 2017, exactly 50 years after Dr. King broke his silence on Vietnam.
We are committed to peace. But we say without equivocation or apology that without justice, there will be no peace—and for justice, we must fight for it. What compels us to resist? We see in the United States and around the world the barbarism of war, repression and imperialism. We see the structural violence of capitalism dramatically revealed by the coronavirus pandemic. We see the oligarchy’s cavalier disregard for human life has unsealed for the public a deeper level of understanding of what it has to mean to be anti-war.
So today, we celebrate the aspiration we all have for peace by re-dedicating ourselves to this cause: Extricating the power to wage war against humanity from those rogue states lorded over by the world’s rapacious, white-supremacist colonial/capitalist minority.
We say end the war in Afghanistan and prosecute the war criminals in the Obama and Trump administrations that provided weapons of war to the fascist Saudi state to wage genocidal war in Yemen. Say no to the new cold war with China, shut down the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and close the estimated 800 to 1,000 U.S. military bases around the world.
Peace, human cooperation, substantive equality and commitment to People(s)-Centered Human Rights are possible. These values represent the only rational basis for sustaining human life on the planet. Join us at 4 p.m., EST, September 24, for our webinar, Full Spectrum Dominance: From AFRICOM to Indo-Pacific Command, where we will discuss and strategize on how we can put a brake on the global bi-partisan war machine.
And thanks to all who supported our effort toward raising a modest $30,000 to help us continue to wage peace. We reached the $10,000 mark, which helped us win a $10,000 matching grant from a generous person. Now please consider helping us meet our goal before the end of the month by giving today.
PRESS AND MEDIA
Last week, BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley and Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford interviewed Sam Martinez of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar Clark in Minneapolis. Sam shared Community Control of Police (CCOP) is the only way to stop murders at the hands of police, saying, “There’s nothing being disbanded, dismantled or defunded, unfortunately, at this time.” Check out the Black Agenda Radio interview. Plus, PACA organizer Max Rameau discussed CCOP on WPFW’s “Community Watch & Comment” starting at the 45-minute mark.
Margaret spoke to Deutsche Welle about the city of Louisville, Kentucky, settling with the family of police-murder victim, Breonna Taylor.
Netfa appeared on Press TV’s “The Debate” to talk about U.S. election fraud and the recent U.S. upheavals. Margaret was interviewed on the Macro N Cheese podcast to talk about the U.S. presidential election, climate change, protests and more.
BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka questioned how Joe Biden’s foreign policy would make any difference for the world in CounterPunch. Margaret did similarly on Radio Sputnik’s “The Critical Hour.”
Netfa appeared on Radio Sputnik’s “By Any Means Necessary,” co-hosted by BAP member Jacqueline Luqman, to discuss the breakdown in talks between the Mali coup leaders and the civilian government on a peaceful transition of power, the involvement of coup leaders in previous U.S. operations in the region, and the role French and German imperialism played in laying the groundwork for conflicts in the West African country.
BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network Coordinator Tunde Osazua joined Talk Nation Radio to discuss the U.S. role in militarizing Africa and BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM campaign.
Netfa interviewed on “Voices With Vision” Aziz Fall, founding member of GRILA (Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa), who spoke about his organization and the lesser known history of anti-AFRICOM resistance outside of the United States.
Michael Sawyer, professor at Colorado College, told Margaret and Glen on Black Agenda Radio that were he alive today, Malcolm X “would be a harsh and clear critic of everything that’s happening” under the Black Lives Matter banner. Historian Gerald Horne also appeared on Black Agenda Radio to discuss his latest book, “The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century.”
On Saturday, a live memorial service took place in English and Spanish for activist and BAP supporter Kevin Zeese. BAP Supporter Network Co-Coordinator Danny Haiphong has been among many who have written tributes to Kevin, who Danny writes, “never wavered in his opposition to the corporate duopoly, white supremacy, and the forces of militarism.”
EVENTS
September 21: The Connecticut Peace & Solidarity Coalition will host a webinar, “Moving Money from the Military to Human Needs: Demanding Candidates Confront the $741 Billion U.S. Military Budget,” at 7:30 p.m., EST. Registration is required.
September 23: PACA's Assata Shakur Study Group will be held online at 7 p.m., EST. PACA requests non-Africans who wish to attend bring an African.
September 24: Mark your calendars for 4 p.m., EST, for BAP’s next webinar, “Full Spectrum Dominance: From AFRICOM to Indo-Pacific Command.” Registration is required.
September 24: ABQ Antiwar Coalition presents an 8 p.m., EST, webinar to discuss the connection between police terrorism and U.S. imperialist violence around the world, with a special focus on Operation Relentless pursuit and Operation Legend. Register here.
September 26: All-African People’s Revolutionary Party will host a webinar, Revolutionary Solutions: Mass Based Alternatives Towards Community Empowerment, at 11 a.m., EST. Register here.
September 26: Cuban doctors from the Henry Reeve Brigade will soon celebrate the medical brigade’s 15th anniversary by discussing what it’s like to work on the frontlines of a pandemic at 8 p.m. EST. Register here.
September 26: No Cold War is organizing a second international webinar for 9 p.m., EST, to discuss global trends and how to organize to stop a new cold war. Registration is required.
September 30: BAP member organization AfroResistance is hosting an anti-oppression workshop, “Dominant Culture: A Virtual Anti-Oppression Workshop.” Registration is required.
October 1: BAP is organizing an International Day of Action on AFRICOM. More information will be available in the next newsletter.
October 18-24: BAP member organization Friends of the Congo is commemorating Congo Week XIII by hosting a series of virtual events this year with special presentations from the Andree Blouin Center in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
October 22: Join us for "A Call for Unity of the National Black Liberation Movement in the Age of Capitalist Decline,” at 7 p.m., EST. This first in a series of national webinars will open a national dialogue on the state of the National Black Liberation Movement, how to establish national unity of all forces seeking Black Liberation, and how to rebuild a national movement that has earned the trust and support of the African American people in our 400-year historic struggle to end oppression. This webinar is sponsored by BAP, BAP member organization Black Workers for Justice, Cooperation Jackson and Community Movement Builders. Registration information will be available in upcoming newsletters.
November 7-8: The Black Is Back Coalition calls on all to march, rally and convene in Washington, D.C., during the “Black People's March On White House.” Registration is required. Read their article in Black Agenda Report.
TAKE ACTION
The Black Latina Girls and Women Fund was created by 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.
Ask your local, state and federal candidates to sign BAP’s 2020 Candidate Accountability Pledge.
Sign up to join BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network to receive the bi-weekly AFRICOM Watch Bulletin in your inbox.
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No Compromise, No Retreat!
Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Dedan, Jaribu, Margaret, Netfa, Nnamdi, Paul, Vanessa, YahNé
P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.
Photo credit: Staff Sgt. Michael B. Keller, U.S. Air Force