For the Anti-Democratic, Corrupt U.S. Duopoly, Peace Is a Four-Letter Word
Cuba was placed back on the infamous list of so-called state sponsors of terrorism by the U.S. state, a state responsible for more terror than any other state or empire in the annals of human history. What was Cuba’s crime, according to the proto-fascist Trump administration, when Cuba was placed back on that list in December 2020? Cuba had hosted the initial round of peace talks between the Colombian government and the Colombians’ second oldest armed opposition group, the National Liberation Army, better known as the ELN.
When China brokered a reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran that could lead to a possible peace agreement ending the horrific war in Yemen, the United States reacted with outrage. How dare these states exercise their own agency! Next, they might finally come to understand the war in Yemen and the tensions in West Asia (otherwise known as the Middle East) only benefited the United States.
The war in Ethiopia, the coup and violence in the Sudan, the introduction of U.S. troops into Peru to prop up its coup government, and the bloody and unnecessary proxy war between NATO and Russia in the Ukraine are just a few examples of the immoral and criminal activities of the United States that help to explain why global polls consistently identify the United States as the greatest threat to international peace in the world.
Yet, there is no opposition to this madness, especially not from the Democratic Party.
Both U.S. capitalist parties support the militarist thrust of U.S. policies, internationally and domestically. The year 2024 will see a Pentagon budget of over $886 billion, overwhelmingly supported by both parties, and which is consuming over 60 percent of the non-discretionary federal budget. In other words, money for housing, education, public health, and spending that might actually improve the quality of life for workers is reduced, so that the people’s resources can be reallocated to war to protect and extend the interest of a rapacious capitalist class committed to global plunder.
But just calling attention to or opposing the dangerous logic that informs the U.S. commitment to the doctrine of global “full spectrum dominance”—with its military-first strategy—is now generating a repressive response from the U.S. legal apparatus.
The Black Alliance for Peace, however, will not be intimidated. Our commitment to peace is irreversible because we are absolutely clear on the issue of peace. We understand fully that there can be no peace without justice and that this position is not a cliché, but an axiom.
As the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, of which BAP is a member, reminds us, the demand for peace should not be “interpreted to be an imperialist peace, the type of peace that the slave master can appreciate as long as the slaves are not resisting and the system of slavery goes unchallenged. When we say peace, we mean the peace that accompanies social justice, a peace that can only come through fierce uncompromising resistance designed to overturn the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor…”
The U.S. political class has exposed itself as an enemy of peace. And for them, peace is a four-letter word. Through our campaign work and mass political-education work—from the struggles against Cop City in Atlanta to our new campaign to make the Americas a “Zone of Peace”—BAP demystifies the oppressive relationships that sustain dominance and points the way toward a liberated future, in which all can experience authentic peace and social security.
Help us build this new world.
BAP IN THE STREETS
BAP members from Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and southern California attended the Americas Policy Forum, on April 29 at American University in Washington, D.C. Haiti/Americas Team Co-Coordinator Jemima Pierre spoke about the West using Haiti as a laboratory for the repression it plans to unleash throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Watch her talk on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
BAP-Philly member Asantewaa Mawusi Nkrumah-Ture speaking out on May Day or International Workers’ Day on May 1. Photo credit: Joe Piette
BAP-NYC member Allendy and BAP Solidarity Network member Danny Shaw joined a KOMOKODA demonstration outside of Columbia University's commencement event to protest Hillary Clinton being appointed a professor for the 2023-24 academic year.
BAP-NYC members, BAP-Atlanta members and BAP member organization Malcolm X Center for Self Determination founder Efia Nwangaza gathered for a panel discussion hosted by The People's Forum. The discussion is one of the events taking place on the side of the second session of the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. The discussion featured BAP member organization AfroResistance Executive Director Janvieve Williams Comrie and Clau O'Brien Moscoso, member of BAP-NYC and the BAP Haiti/Americas Team. The event was titled, “Racial Justice, Reparation and Development in the Context of International Crisis: Contributions to the Development of Afrodescendant Peoples from an Intersectional Perspective.” It can be viewed here.
BAP-Philly members Gassoh, Stoke (Malik) and Asantewaa attended the “No Arena in Chinatown” rally and march on June 10 in Philadelphia. Approximately 3,500 people of various ages, genders and ethnic backgrounds protested professional basketball team the Philadelphia 76ers’ proposed arena in the city’s Chinatown as a racist act of gentrification.
PRESS AND MEDIA
Julie Varughese, co-coordinator of BAP’s Solidarity Network wrote two articles that may be of interest to the movement. A two-year-old argument about "anti-Blackness" in Cuba, which African/Black solidarity activists in the United States say has no basis in reality, has reared its head. BAP members Kimberly Miller and Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture are quoted in this piece. Plus, the “Uhuru 3,” three of the four U.S.-based defendants—who are members of the African People's Socialist Party—spoke out for the first time since U.S. government indictments dropped last month that accuse them of trying to work with Russia to sow social discord in the United States. Julie reported on their press conference.
An organizer with the BAP Haiti/Americas Team, living between Lima, Peru, and the United States, Clau O'Brien Moscoso’s Black Agenda Report article, “Approval of US Troops to Train Peruvian Armed Forces Proves U.S. Behind Coup” was also republished in Orinoco Tribune.
On the June 6 episode of “Voices With Vision,” the radio program produced and hosted by BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman, along with Craig Hall and Latrice Vincent on WPFW (89.3 FM in Washington, D.C.), they interview the executive director of BAP member organization Community Movement Builders, Kamau Franklin, to get the latest on the struggle to stop Cop City in Atlanta, a take that’s “not for the politically faint of heart.” The episode also features two presentations from a lunch and book discussion, co-sponsored by BAP, “Unveiling Truth and Inspiring Change – Survivors Uncensored.” Delphine Yandamutso of the Rwanda Accountability Initiative and co-author of a book, Survivors Uncensored: 100 + Testimonies of Resilience and Humanity, and Salome Ayuak of BAP’s Africa Team spoke.
Starting with political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal’s latest commentary, “Red Horizons," the June 13 episode of WPFW’s “Voices With Vision” radio program interviewed Devin Walker (aka Uncle Devin) of The Uncle Devin Show. The discussion exposed the corruption of the government of Washington, D.C., which has implications for Mayor Muriel Bowser’s supposed Racial Equity Plans, involving the misuse of hundreds of millions of dollars in DC Public School contracts. The second half of this episode replays a timeless 2017 speech by the late Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report that illuminates the warmongering geopolitics of the United States.
Peter James Hudson, a member of BAP’s Haiti/Americas Team, as well as Jemima Pierre, a co-coordinator of that team, each testified at the Haiti Hearing for the International Peoples Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism. Their remarks begin on the timestamps 18:46 minutes and 1:22:05 hours, respectively.
The June 1, 2023 episode of “The RemiX Morning Show” on Black Power Media invited Netfa to recap and evaluate Pan-African Community Action’s special collaborative Assata Shakur Study Group session on “Internationalism, Malcolm X, African Liberation Day.” They also discussed the need for collective political education. Netfa comes into the show at the 1:05:30 mark.
Netfa and BAP Coordinating Committee Chairperson Ajamu Baraka tag team in an interview on “The Critical Hour” to discuss FBI attacks on the Black liberation movement, why Cuba must defeat the blockade without waiting for it to be lifted, and African nations coming together to push back against imperialism in the new Cold War. This interview starts at 57:30 into the two hours.
Ajamu’s testimony at the recent International People's Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism on Cuba—viewable in this video and read as text in Black Agenda Report—lays out how the United States qualifies as the true rogue state by waging war against the Cuban people for more than 60 years, designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism to justify sanctions and military threats, and causing great suffering in the island nation.
Margaret Kimberley, BAP Coordinating Committee member and Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, conducts an in depth interview with Dr. Cornel West about his 2024 presidential campaign, his platform, and decision to be a candidate for the Green Party nomination.
BAP Solidarity Network member Sarina Larson was interviewed live on Pacifica Radio station KPFK’s “The Lawyers Guild” radio program on June 7 to discuss Cop City and the First Amendment. She starts 30 minutes into the show.
EVENTS
June 15: The Party for Socialism & Liberation (PSL) is hosting, “20 Years: Iraq, U.S. Empire and America's (Mis)Education System,” at Philadelphia Liberation Center at 6 p.m. ET. This event is a reflection on the two decades since the United States invaded Iraq. It will be moderated by Saskia Kercy of BAP-Philly. More information here.
June 15: Hear from a panel of four BAP members who went on the 2023 May Day Brigade to Cuba. “May Day Reflections on Cuba: Advancing the Zone of Peace” will be a multimedia report reflecting on the seminars and forums they attended, connections they made with the Cuban people, their experience participating in May Day celebrations, and bonds developed with people from other countries who also came to Cuba. Also hear about how solidarity with Cuba fits into BAP's campaign for Our Americas to be recognized and respected as a Zone of Peace. Attend 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. Register here.
June 17: Join U.S. Hands Off Cuba Committee for “Report Back From U.S. Delegations to Cuba: May Day, Trade Union & Solidarity Conferences” at the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance in Los Angeles, California, and online, from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. PT (5 p.m. - 7 p.m. ET). Join this event to educate and mobilize people to Washington, D.C., to get the U.S. government off Cuba’s back once and for all! BAP-Atlanta member Damion Scott will be among the speakers. Here is the link to participate in this hybrid event.
June 23-25: BAP member organization Community Movement Builders will be hosting the “National Black Radical Organizing Conference” with the theme, “Unity in our Lifetime: Connecting the National Black Struggle for Self-Determination with Pan-Africanism.” Registration fee: $25. Register here.
June 25: Join protests demanding U.S. President Joe Biden take Cuba off the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism.” A rally will be held at the White House coinciding with local protests across the United States. The organizers say, “Let’s make our voices loud and clear: ‘Cuba is not a ‘terrorist’ state! End U.S. terrorism against Cuba!’ Endorse the action. Organizers request supporters on social media use the hashtag, #OffTheList.
June 28: The topic of BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA)’s next Assata Shakur Study Group is “Visions for Community Control of the Police” from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. Participate in-person at Black Workers & Wellness Center, 2500 Martin Luther King, Jr., Ave., SE, Washington, D.C. or for online, register here.
July 1: Is a virtual party and hangout for the release of the second edition of the book, “The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power; Media, Race, Economics” by Jared A. Ball. Jared is a BAP member; professor of both communication and Africana studies at Morgan State University; host of the podcast, “iMiXWHATiLiKE!”; and co-founder of Black Power Media. Bring your comments, questions, criticism, and maybe win a free signed copy! Join at 7 p.m. ET 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: A billboard in Cuba that says in Spanish "70% of Cubans were born under the blockade" (Courtesy celag.org)