The Mask is Off: The Hideous Connections Between Zionism, Colonialism, Capitalism and Genocide
In April, students across the US empire rose up with campus-based encampments designed to bring attention to the genocide against Palestine and demand that their universities divest from economies engaged in active genocidal campaigns. It came as little surprise to anyone who has ever read a history book that US universities chose to stand by the Zionist genocide machine and instead attack their own students.
Despite a well-documented live-streamed genocide, as late as December 2023 publicly calling for a cease-fire was too politically risky for many grassroots organizations. Mass demonstrations and agitation changed that calculation, and today a growing list of organizations have joined the call.
To be clear, BAP’s position has not changed one iota since our founding in 2017: end the colonial domination of Palestine by Zionists and liberate a free and independent Palestine. We don’t only want a cease-fire, we want a liberated Palestine.
But other organizations have evolved more on the issue of Palestine in the past few months than in their entire lifetime. What happened?
BAP has consistently asserted that as people rise up against the deepening crisis of capitalism, the veneer of Western civilization and enlightenment will fall, revealing the naked aggression and violence inherent in capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. The horror of the colonial Zionist campaign of genocide is that reveal.
This reveal of colonial violence is forcing people to rethink the propaganda they have internalized. But the revelation of facts is not the same as drawing correct conclusions.
For the entire duration of human existence, the sun has risen from the East and fallen in the West. Yet, only in the last 3,000 or so years, and only in the last 500 years for most Europeans, did large numbers of people recognize that the Earth rotated as it orbited the sun. The facts were the same, but the conclusions differed.
As the masses of African people examine with new eyes the relationship between Zionists and Palestine, what will we conclude? Will we fall for the ploy to scapegoat Benjamin Netanyahu for all of Israel’s crimes and then fall back to complacency after he is removed from office? Or will we make the connection between Israel and colonialism, colonialism and capitalism, and capitalism and genocide?
BAP was built for this moment. Since 2017, we have been preaching the very ideas that most people you know will not conclude for another 6 months or a year. And YOU will help them reach those conclusions. But reaching that conclusion is not forgone. The enemy is also fighting the war of ideas and is intent on spreading mass confusion.
BAP has been deeply engaged in the campus protests, providing strategic and tactical guidance. But most importantly, we are providing analysis. We are building a vision of the future that will end imperialism and usher in a world of peace. BAP was built for this moment, and we need you now, more than ever.
Haiti/Americas Team Co-Coordinator, Austin Cole also with MIT Scientists Against Genocide Encampment at MIT Austin Cole with Scientists Against Genocide Encampment at MIT is participating in the campus encampment. In addition to organizing for MIT’s divestment from Israel, he has been raising the connections between Haiti and Palestine.
BAP DC & Baltimore supported George Washington University (GWU) students' SJP/PYM encampment for Palestine. Students deployed the encampment at around 6 am, and BAP came out late morning and watched the crowd grow. The day was also BAP Haiti/Americas Team's Haiti Day of Action, so BAP DC's Jacquie Luqman raised Haiti in her speech to the students and Rafiki Morris filled the students' hearts with courage with his words. They stayed until we felt the students were safe from a pig incursion, well into the night. The kids are alright!
BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA), based in Washington DC also supported the encampment for Palestine at GWU by turning out on the initial day, delivering supplies, and responding to invitations from SJP/PYM to give teach-ins. The first was on May 2nd about the housing crisis in DC led by Garrett Harris and another on the following day, May 3rd about the DC Crime Bill led by Bree Hemphill and Garrett.
In March, Black Alliance for Peace NYC/NJ in collaboration with Westchester for Palestine and many other Westchester organizations, held a teach-in entitled "At the Root of it All: Legacies of Colonization from Mount Vernon to Palestine". Speakers included: BAP Philly member Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, John Kane, and Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi. The event highlighted the historical and modern linkages between Palestinian, African/Black, and Indigenous American peoples.
In April, BAP NYC/NJ collaborated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation for a joint disruption at the National Action Network 2024 Conference during a speech by Hakeem Jeffries. BAP member Ewan Johnson courageously stood and called out the hypocrisy of the Black misleadership and their complicity in the imperialist interventions in Haiti. BAP BYC/NJ followed up this event by answering the call for Days of Action to support Haiti. They brought together a coalition of organizations to put together a Hands off Haiti Town Hall and Art Build for community members to engage with organizers and activists and a Hands off Haiti Community Speak Out to publicly raise the issue of the impending occupation and illegitimate transitional council.
As of April 13th, Justice Unity & Social Transformation (JUST) celebrated its 100th “community serve.” Every other Saturday they provide free hot food, clothes, and hygiene products to community members located on the Westside of Columbus, OH. They show up regardless of the weather. Collectively, they continue to resist oppressive and exploitative systems by building systems of care that put the people first.
Member Justin Liang with the Pittsburgh Black Worker Center conducted a banner drop on Bigelow Blvd, Pittsburgh PA. as a part of the call for actions in support of Haiti on the 4th Thursday of the month. The banner exclaimed, “Free Haiti from the Core Group”. It remained up for the better part of the day and the images were shared through social media as well.
On April 13th, 2024, BAP So-Cal member Gloria Verdieu and Ky (BAP Mid-Atlantic) tabled and presented at the 18th Annual Association of Raza Educators (ARE) Conference at the Logan Memorial Educational Campus in San Diego, California. Over 200 educators and organizers received propaganda literature, political education, and training materials, including from a BAP member’s workshop titled: Embodying Resistance - Confronting Contradictions in the Classroom and Community. The themes for 2024 were “Regeneración con la voz del pueblo- Revitalizing power and resistance”.
A reflection from Ky on participating in ARE San Diego’s International Working Women’s Day and Study Group events in March was featured in their recent newsletter publication, Maestr@s En La Lucha (Teachers in the Struggle), which was distributed throughout the event.
Black Alliance For Peace Baltimore Citywide Alliance and Africa Team hosted the event, “Why the Congo Matters: The Centrality of Congo to African Liberation” as part of their programming for African Liberation Month. Where they sat in conversation with Friends of The Congo Red Emma’s in Baltimore, MD. The event was packed with attendees looking to learn more about the importance of Congo and its liberation from imperialist forces.
Margaret Kimberly on the BAP Coordinating Committee participated in a Friends of Socialist China delegation hosted by the China NGO Network for International Exchanges and traveled to Beijing and other cities in China. See her report here
The Black Alliance for Peace, along with dozens of other organizations, attended the United Antiwar Coalition 2024 Conference from April 5-7. The theme of this year’s conference was “Unity in Action”. Some topics of discussion were the Palestinian resistance, No to NATO, opposition to U.S. aggression against China, and attacks on migrants. Coordinating Committee Chair, Ajamu Baraka, delivered the opening remarks and Coordinating Committee Treasurer, Margaret Kimberley closed out the conference. Read more here.
Chris Bernadel of the Haiti/Americas Team was interviewed on CounterSpin about the roots of the crisis in Haiti. Chris emphasized that the crisis in Haiti is not one of gangs but of imperialism and complicity by the Haitian oligarchs. In the interview, they discussed the history of imperialism on the island and the ongoing interventions that manufacture the conditions that are used as an excuse to deny Haitians their sovereignty.
Ewan Johnson of BAP NYC/NJ was interviewed for the April 23rd episode of Voices With Vision about a BAP/PSL disruption of a Hakeem Jeffries speech at the National Action Network 2024 Conference and the response they received from Al Sharpton. The segment covered the topics of black misleadership and the connections between Haiti and Africans in the United States.
BAP Africa Team Co-Coordinator Netfa Freeman has been writing about imperialist soft power in Africa. Recently he exposed the U.S. machinations on the continent with his articles “U.S. Imperialism Raising Its Ugly Arrogance Again in Zimbabwe” about which he was interviewed on KPFA radio’s Flashpoints and “Is U.S. Imperialism Maneuvering Toward ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ in Burkina Faso?” which was also picked up in NewsGhana. This article precipitated an interview on Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon on Sirius XM 126 Urban View.
Member and Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Missouri, Dr. Willie Mack published the article, "Black History Month: A Tradition Built Through Resistance" for People's World.
Bryan K. Bullock and his coalition of activists in EJ Disruption have been awarded a fellowship to address environmental racism in the state of Indiana.
BAP sees Gaza as another aspect of the war being waged on colonized people by the U.S. and we reject notions that juxtapose the struggle for a liberated Congo against the struggle for a free Palestine. BAP Africa Team and U.S. Out of Africa Network are calling for an African Liberation Month as a build-up toward African Liberation Day commemorations across the world on May 25th.
Wednesday, May 22: Commemorate, celebrate, and support African Liberation Day (ALD) with, Black Alliance for Peace-DC and member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA) at African Liberation Day DC Teach-in about how the struggles of Africans on the continent are connected to that of Africans (Black people) in the U.S. | Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM | Location: Sankofa Video Books & Cafe 2714 Georgia Ave, NW Washington, DC
Friday, May 24: BAP member organization, the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) will hold the International ALD Webinar, “Same Struggle: Smash Settler-Colonialism in Zionist Israel, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania!” | Time: 12:00 PM EST, 9 AM PST, 4 PM UTC, 7 PM Nairobi | REGISTER HERE
Saturday, May 25: A-APRP’s official African Liberation Day, a historical institution that has been commemorated in Baltimore, Maryland for over 40 years. The theme for ALD 2024 is "SAME STRUGGLE: Smash Settler-Colonialism in Occupied Palestine, Africa, The Americas, and Oceania!" | Time: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Location: Lafayette Square Park 600 North Carey Street, Baltimore, MD.
Saturday, May 25: BAP Atlanta is holding Atlanta African Liberation Day with performances, speakers, and discussions that highlight African struggles on the continent, throughout the diaspora, and right here in Atlanta | Time: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM | Location: CT Martin Recreation & Aquatic Center, Auditorium 1, 3201 M.L.K. Jr Dr SW, Atlanta, GA | REGISTER HERE
Saturday, May 25: Join Black Lives Matter Boston to celebrate African Liberation Day. It will include a screening of the documentary "The Sun Rises in the East" and a community gathering with food distribution and engaging conversations with fellow community members | Time: 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Location: Urban Edge 1544 Columbus Ave, Roxbury, MA | REGISTER HERE!
No Compromise, No Retreat!
Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Austin, Erica, Jacqueline, Jaribu, Jemima, Margaret, Matt, Netfa, Nnamdi, Paul, Rafiki, and Yasmin
Coordinating Committee
P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.