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close all u.s. foreign bases

On Why the World Needs Black Leadership

On Why the World Needs Black Leadership

Three Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) members participated in the First International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases, a historic gathering that has elevated the global anti-war movement. BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka introduced attendees to Dr. Aleida Guevara, Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara’s daughter, who is an accomplished medical activist. Attendees praised the AFRICOM plenary chaired by BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley, which was elevated with the expert participation of BAP Coordinating Committee member Paul Pumphrey. Anne Atambo, president of WILPF Kenya, and Chris Matlhako of South African Peace Initiative also presented.

The importance of BAP was on full display. We have emerged as a critical leadership force in the global anti-war movement. What we have heard and experienced over our 18-month existence re-affirms the importance of being an autonomous Black organization based in the United States.

You can read BAP’s statement on the conference here. You can also see videos and the global coalition’s joint communiqué here.

BAP Member at White Supremacy Rally in Philly

While some of us were talking war and peace in Dublin, BAP member Asantewaa Mawusi Nkrumah-Ture represented Saturday at the No White Supremacists in Philly rally. More than 1,000 anti-fascist demonstrators turned out, scaring off the few white supremacists who showed up and enjoyed police protection (as usual). Here are more photos from the event.

This week, we heard something that almost sounded like good news. Almost. The U.S. government announced it is pulling 10 percent of its military out of Africa... to focus on threatening China and Russia. This move demonstrates why our U.S. Out of Africa! campaign to shut down U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has been and remains part of a global campaign to shut down all U.S. and NATO military bases. Please sign our petition and share it online. (We need 19 more signatures to reach the 1,500-signature mark!) If you want to be able to print out and circulate the petition in your communities, universities and elsewhere, click here.

As you can see, BAP has been able to accomplish more than million-dollar operations because we have something they don’t—a historical imperative that is rooted in being the oppressed, being the ones in the cross hairs of state violence and repression. Only you can help us raise $1,500 to support five of our activists to attend the Southern Human Rights Organizers’ Conference (SHROC) next month in Atlanta. Please give what you can.

Attend these events:

  1. BAP Coordinating Committee member Jaribu Hill has been organizing the Southern Human Rights Organizers’ Conference (SHROC) for 22 years. Join her and activists from the Global South Dec. 7-9 in Atlanta.

  2. Celebrate BAP's second anniversary on April 4 in Washington, D.C., as we demonstrate against the transnational ruling class desecrating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday by holding a huge party to honor NATO's 70th anniversary on that day.

No compromise.

No retreat.

Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Jaribu, Margaret, Netfa, Paul, Vanessa and YahNé
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Help us organize our people against the U.S. empire by contributing today.

Photo credit: Ellen Davidson, top; Joe Piette, botto

A Different Kind of Women's March

A Different Kind of Women's March

BAP members Ajamu Baraka, Charo Mina-Rojas, Jose Monzon, and YahNé Ndgo joined about 1,500 of some of the most dedicated people in the country to march Sunday with Cindy Sheehan in the Women’s March on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) continues to stress war is a class issue—but it is also a race and gender issue, with people of color, women, and LGBTQIA2S and non-binary people disproportionately suffering. It is unfortunate forces associated with the “resistance,” who allow themselves to be called forth whenever the Democratic Party beckons, have failed to understand the importance of opposing the permanent war agenda of the duopoly. Opposing this agenda is also why we will be out in force to support the next mobilization in Washington, D.C., called by the Black Is Back Coalition on November 3 as well as the Peace Congress being organized for the week afterward. This really is shaping up to be an Anti-war Autumn.

As part of our #AntiwarAutumn efforts and our contribution to the work of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, we launched a campaign on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM demands the end of war and militarism on the continent of our ancestors. Please sign our petition to the Congressional Black Caucus and U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee (we're almost at 1,000 signatures!).

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka also spoke with Lee Camp of “Redacted Tonight” about the importance of re-invigorating Black internationalist forces to build an anti-war, anti-imperialist movement inside the imperial core. And BAP member Netfa Freeman wrote about the connection between the attack on Black communities in the United States and the U.S. occupation of Africa in Black Star News.

Please also attend these events:

  1. BAP Coordinating Committee members Jaribu Hill and Ajamu Baraka will join esteemed revolutionaries as jurists at the International Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crimes on Puerto Rico, being held October 27 in New York City.

  2. Join BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action for this popular-education program, “From Anacostia to AFRICOM: How Capitalism Creates Killer Cops.”

  3. Join Ajamu Baraka and representatives from the Black Is Back Coalition and the United National Antiwar Coalition for a panel discussion to “End the Wars at Home and Abroad” October 31 in New York City.

  4. African peoples are asked to participate in the Black Is Back Coalition’s November 3 March on the White House in Washington, D.C.

  5. Now that Trump’s military parade is canceled due to mass pressure, BAP is helping organize Peace Congress: End All U.S. Wars at Home and Abroad, being held November 10 in Washington, D.C. BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman will speak.

  6. Join BAP Coordinating Committee members Margaret Kimberley and Ajamu Baraka at the First International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases, being held November 16-18 in Dublin, Ireland.

  7. BAP Coordinating Committee member Jaribu Hill has been organizing the Southern Human Rights Organizers’ Conference (SHROC) for 22 years. Join her and activists from the Global South Dec. 7-9 in Atlanta. Register by October 31 for the early-bird price. Book the group hotel rate by November 13.

No compromise.

No retreat.

Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Jaribu, Margaret, Netfa, Paul, Vanessa and YahNé
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Help us organize our people against the U.S. empire by contributing today.

BAP Is on the Move

BAP Is on the Move

Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) members spent a day and a half last weekend re-considering our programmatic work and re-organizing our leadership structure, so we can build our capacity for liberation. We left Atlanta energized about our soon-to-be launched U.S. Out of Africa! campaign, as well as related campaigns on demilitarizing the world, and closing U.S. and NATO military bases.

Member Meeting 2.jpg
BAP Meeting 1.jpg


Fortunately, Africans around the world are organizing themselves, too. Hundreds of delegates who met in Ghana for a Pan-Africanist conference held discussions to advance the struggle against capitalism and imperialism.

This week marked a historic visit to the United States by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who spoke at Riverside Church in New York City after addressing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the inhumane U.S. blockade against the Caribbean island. Then Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros made a surprise appearance. Watch the video of the whole event documented by our friends at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

The U.S. state has been openly involved in criminal aggression against the Venezuelan state, with almost no opposition from 'progressive forces' in the United States and Europe. It is yet another example of the class-collaborationist character of so much of the Western and U.S. left—and why it is political suicide for radical Black forces not to be independently organized.

Maduro said in his address to the UNSC: "I bring the truth of a country that has not surrendered, a historic people that resisted colonial empires in centuries past, I bring the voice of a people who have the honor of being the birthplace of the Liberator Simón Bolívar … Our nation is a country that is harassed and attacked. Yesterday, in this very spot, the President of the United States of America spoke once again against the noble people of Venezuela."

Even Bolivian President Evo Morales looked Trump directly in the eye and recalled that the United States had orchestrated a coup in Iran back in the 1950s to stop that country’s quest for self-determination.

In a further repudiation of the United States, North Korea and South Korea jointly declared the end of the war on Korea and announced their joint bid to host the 2032 Olympics. They also pledged to create rail and road links between the North and the South within the next year, stop military drills aimed at each other along the military demarcation line that divides the North and the South by November 1, among other moves that express cross-border solidarity. China and Russia called for U.S. sanctions on North Korea to be eased as well. All of this points to the diminishing position of the United States in an increasingly multilateral world.

China even came out with a new party line: It is trying to save the world from the United States, which at this point can only boast of its military prowess while its people go hungry and homeless at alarming rates.

The World Peace Council that BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka attended released a final declaration on its 5-day meeting in the Dominican Republic. This document is unlike the final declaration released by the Trilateral Peace Conference, which was held during the same week.

Please also attend these events:

  1. BAP has endorsed an October 7 rally in New York City to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: From Afghanistan to Yemen, End the Wars: NY Tour

  2. BAP Coordinating Committee members Jaribu Hill and Ajamu Baraka will join esteemed revolutionaries as jurists at the International Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crimes on Puerto Rico, being held October 27 in New York City.

  3. Participate in a national conference call October 18 on militarism featuring Ajamu Baraka and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who is organizing the Women’s March on the Pentagon during #AntiwarAutumn.

  4. Now that Trump’s military parade is canceled due to mass pressure, BAP is helping organize Peace Congress: End All U.S. Wars at Home and Abroad, being held November 10 in Washington, D.C.

  5. Join BAP Coordinating Committee members Margaret Kimberley and Ajamu Baraka at the First International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases, being held November 16-18 in Dublin, Ireland.

No compromise.

No retreat.

Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Jaribu, Margaret, Netfa, Paul, Vanessa and YahNé
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Help us organize our people against the U.S. empire by contributing today.


 

The Bipartisan Rip-off

The Bipartisan Rip-off

Since we at the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) are preparing for this weekend’s membership meeting, we’ll keep this update brief.

The bipartisan rip-off of the public continues. While we are being entertained by the antics of Trump, the Senate with almost no opposition passed another record defense bill.

"The funding total—approved by a 93-7 vote—amounts to an increase of more than 3 percent for military spending in fiscal 2019.”

Last week, BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka attended the Trilateral Peace Conference (US, Canada, Mexico), which was held in conjunction with the Hemispheric Peace Conference of the World Peace Council and its affiliates. Conference attendees issued a final declaration on their path forward.

Please also try to attend these events:

  1. Tonight in Atlanta: BAP is hosting another AFRICOM panel, this time in Atlanta on September 20 at Morehouse College.

  2. BAP endorsed the Days of Action Against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba and related film screenings.

  3. 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!

Photo credit: AP/Dario Lopez-Mills

BAP Demands "U.S. Out of Africa!"

BAP Demands "U.S. Out of Africa!"

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:

  1. 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.

  2. BAP endorsed the Days of Action Against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba and related film screenings.

  3. 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!

  4. 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!


Freedom Fighters, Help BAP Stay Independent

Freedom Fighters, Help BAP Stay Independent

We were touched by the response we got from the public when we asked you a few days ago to support us so we could keep our independent voice. We want to thank all who gave a little or a lot, but we are not there yet. We still have four days to reach our goal of $10,000—and we are far from it. Give today, freedom fighters. Dig deep because we too are digging deep to build this alliance as a structure for liberation and transformation.

The national prison strike continues into its final week, but prisoners are not just raising their voices for people who are locked up after being convicted. They’re bringing attention to migrants and refugees in detention centers as well as folks with disabilities, who make up a large portion of the prison population.

The Women’s March on the Pentagon, scheduled for October 20-21, is part of Anti-war Autumn, a campaign designed so electoral candidates cannot avoid the questions of imperialism and war. BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka said, “We’ve got to put the so-called ‘New Wave’ Democrats on notice that we’re not going to allow them to get elected without clearly stating where they stand on U.S. militarism.” Listen to the interview.

The U.S. empire as well as its allies in the European Union and NATO have been increasing the volume of its propaganda against emerging powers like China. Comedian and activist Lee Camp explains how to create a U.S.-backed coup, and much of it involves tricking the population with lies. The Forum on Africa-China Cooperation concluded this week with an agreement to increase dialogue and strengthen ties to continue economic development in the form of the Belt and Road Initiative. Already, more than 3,000 miles of motorways and railways have been built in African countries.


EVENTS

We understand many of you are fretting over the state’s collaboration with communications and technology corporations. These forces are coming for BAP, and it might happen sooner than we think. The only way we will win is with the support of the masses. We’re organizing our first membership meeting for September 21-22 in Atlanta to consolidate our forces. Only you can help us raise $10,000 to make this meeting happen and beat back the U.S. empire.

If you are of African descent and would like to attend this first mass membership meeting, become a member. You will then receive information about how to register for first membership meeting.

Please also try to attend these other events:

  1. BAP endorsed the annual Brooklyn-Wide March Against Gentrification, Racism and Police Violence that is taking place September 15 in New York City. Please RSVP, get your organizations to endorse this march and participate!

  2. 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!

 

Photo credit: itsgoingdown.org

Prison Strike Rattles the U.S. Empire

Prison Strike Rattles the U.S. Empire

Tuesday marked the 500th anniversary of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which escalated the Pan-European colonial project. This endeavor looted whole continents and committed genocide on a scale never before recorded.

The Pan-European colonial project is underway to this day as 2.2 million people (mostly Black and Brown) are incarcerated. But the oppressed are rising up. This year’s National Prison Strike—from August 21 to September 9—is shaking up this racist, capitalist system that profits off incarcerated bodies, forcing inmates to pay exorbitant sums for basic needs like food and phone calls to loved ones. In the face of suppression such as prison lockdowns, concessions have been made that appear coincidental: Texas’ correctional system lowered the cost of making phone calls by 75 percent. BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley writes of this transitional program to get free: “Hopefully, they won’t be betrayed by quisling civil rights misleaders, as in 2010.” Read more. Meanwhile, BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman’s radio segment reports on the prison strike, as well as on Black August, its progenitor. Here’s a roundup of reports on the prison strike.

With it being Black August, we have no choice but to talk about the impact of the 2014 Ferguson unrest after the murder of Mike Brown. BAP Coordinating Committee member Lamont Lilly interviewed a Ferguson activist who says, "... as Black people, there are no safe spaces for us—only places of limited intellectual and physical refuge."

This past weekend, the internet and airwaves popped off with revisionism on the life of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). The reaction demonstrated once again that the United States is a right-wing nation. We must come to terms with that reality before we can confront it. It is immoral for oppressed people and people who understand the nature and consequence of U.S. militarism to claim McCain is a hero. For example, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) said, "Senator John McCain was a warrior for peace.” People should not be surprised by Lewis’ remark. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), a body that voted to continue the 1033 program that is largely responsible for militarizing the police, and terrorizing Black and Brown communities in the United States. Lewis also voted to make the police a protected class and voted in favor of the obscene $717 billion military budget. Like McCain, these folks in the CBC are criminals who serve the ruling elite and the imperialist project of this country.

Folks, capitalism has advanced to the point where a leader of an imperialist country is now admitting to being "unashamed" to consider the United Kingdom's "national interests." Theresa May is making a trip to Africa to discuss its aid program. We know "aid" takes poor people deep into neo-colonialism. And we shouldn't be surprised if they withhold that aid unless South Africans and other Africans agree to not take back land stolen by white farmers.

We should all be concerned about the neo-colonialism taking place on the African continent. Aside from the older European imperial powers trying to keep their hands on Africa, the United States has announced it is building a $280 million drone base in Niger by the year 2024. The work BAP is developing on AFRICOM is ever more important as the United States moves further into occupying Africa to exploit it and keep out other potential infrastructure-development partners like China.

We must also be wary of how the United States and its allies start rumors that can turn whole countries against one another. One U.S. member of an independent United Nations body claimed China was interning 1 million Muslims, but failed to name a single source. The Western corporate media ran with it anyway and now we have folks all over social media talking about this, which not only demonizes China—it racializes China and sets up the United States for starting a war.

Folks, we hear from some of you every week, with appreciation for our work. Did you know we are a grassroots organization that doesn’t take money from corporations or foundations? We know some of you are worried about the state’s collaboration with communications and technology corporations. The state is coming for BAP, and it might happen sooner than we think. The only way we will win is with the support of the masses. We’re organizing our first membership meeting for September 21-22 in Atlanta to consolidate our forces. Only you can help us raise $10,000 to make this meeting happen and beat back the U.S. empire.

If you would like to attend, become a member. You will then receive information about how to register for first membership meeting.

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 empire by contributing today toward our first membership meeting.

National Prison Strike Illuminates the Black Struggle

National Prison Strike Illuminates the Black Struggle

If you’re on social media, the National Prison Strike in the United States is hard to miss. More than 2.2 million people (mostly Black and Brown) are behind bars, many working for pennies an hour as modern slaves—and being denied their human rights. The white-supremacist ruling class considers Blacks economically redundant and finds us more valuable as slaves. That is why folks are withholding their labor.

In a show of international solidarity, Palestinian prisoners have linked with this rebellion: “We extend a special revolutionary salute to the imprisoned strugglers of the Black Liberation Movement and other liberation movements, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose consistent internationalism and principled struggle is known and resonates around the world.”

Here on this stolen land, Black folks in the Black-run city of Baltimore may not be incarcerated. But judging by how vigorously they are policed, they too are being denied their human rights. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), along with a number of national and local groups, organized a discussion last Saturday on the connection between domestic repression and global U.S. militarism, with a focus on the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The program provided a peek into BAP’s campaign on the U.S. re-invasion and occupation of Africa, which will be launched October 1, the 10th anniversary of AFRICOM. Watch the video of our panel discussion, “U.S. Military Occupation of Black Communities and the Age of AFRICOM”.

The unfinished revolution in South Africa took a significant step toward justice with the government moving to take back land stolen by Dutch and English colonialists when they invaded the territory more than 100 years ago. However, even this effort will not reverse the general perception that the interests of the African majority have been subordinated to the interests of the white minority by the Black elites who came to power in the 1990s.

Maurice Carney of BAP member organization Friends of the Congo argues the assassination of Congo’s Patrice Lumumba was the most important of the 20th century: "For both the U.S. and Belgium, keeping Congo weak, dependent and impoverished best serves their strategic interests, which includes access to precious and strategic minerals in order to fuel their military, aerospace, technology, electronics and automobile industries."

Our friends in Latin America are waging their own battle against the Pan-European colonial project. Venezuela has begun using the Sovereign Bolivar (Bs.S.), which will be anchored to the cryptocurrency Petro, which is backed by the oil reserves of the Caribbean, and not tied to the U.S. dollar. This an effort to operate independently of the grip of U.S. imperialism.

Meanwhile, embattled former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is officially running for president after repression by a U.S.-supported right-wing government in Brazil.

In Guatemala, more than 40 social organizations demanded on Sunday that the government stop the murder and criminalization of human rights defenders. Activists charged U.S.-backed President Jimmy Morales with expanding the war.

BAP member Glen Ford writes in Black Agenda Report that “Silicon Valley and the corporate media are far more effective in conjuring alternative realities than the chaotic Trump White House.” Read more here.


EVENTS

Folks are still reeling over the state’s collaboration with communications and technology corporations. It’s clear the state may be coming for BAP soon. The only way we will win is with the support of the masses. We’re organizing our first membership meeting for September 21-22 in Atlanta to consolidate our forces. Only you can help us raise $10,000 to make this meeting happen and beat back the U.S. empire.

Also consider attending the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases’ First Annual International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases in November in Dublin, Ireland.

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 empire by contributing today toward our first membership meeting.

What We Can Learn from Hiroshima and Nagasaki

What We Can Learn from Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Seventy-three years ago, atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 100,000 people on the day of the attacks and tens of thousands more in the following months.

The United States is still the only country to use an atomic weapon against human beings. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) supports a 2017 United Nations treaty to ban all nuclear weapons. We say the right to life is the ultimate human right with war being the ultimate violator of that right. Yet, contemporary policymakers in the Obama and Bush administrations, who had made the Dr. Strangelove character seem rational, had quietly engaged in discussions about the tactical feasibility of limited nuclear war, as if a nuclear war could possibly be contained. Read more about our position in our statement.

The devastation wreaked on Japan by the atomic bombs doesn’t seem to matter to the United States, though. This criminal state has only continued waging war across the globe, with U.S. troops stationed on every continent and murderous invasions and occupations taking place throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Just this week, the Trump administration re-imposed sanctions on Iran, escalating its drive to war in yet another country in west Asia.

Meanwhile, the United States and its vassal states are clearly behind the latest attempted assassination of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday. Venezuelans, a people with a proud Bolivarian tradition who have faced years of U.S. aggression, marched in support of their president.

Colombia, a U.S. proxy state, was cited as an actor in the attack on Maduro. Yet the South American country faces its own internal struggle for peace, especially now that a conservative president has been inaugurated. The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases—of which BAP is a founding member—expressed its solidarity with the popular movements of Colombia: “We denounce that the Colombian state has become an agent of Empire that threatens its own people, the region, and the planet.”

We are happy to announce our website has been revamped. Please pop over there and take a look at our new home page and campaign pages. If you’re interested in becoming a member or supporter, now is the time to do so as we now have the capacity to smoothly process applications.


EVENTS

The breakdown in U.S. society and the collaboration between leftists and liberals continues to disturb many of us. We must intensify our efforts to build the Black Alliance for Peace as a critical formation in the new anti-war movement. We are moving toward our first membership meeting in September. Please help up raise the $10,000 we need to pull off this meeting. Only you can help rebuild this movement.

Join BAP, member organizations Friends of the Congo and Pan African Community Action (PACA), and others for an August 18 panel discussion in Baltimore about the militarization of Black communities and AFRICOM.

The Black Is Back Coalition will hold its annual conference in Saint Louis, this weekend. BAP is a member of this coalition and we encourage everyone to attend.

Consider attending the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases’ is hosting the First Annual International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases in November in Dublin, Ireland.

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 rebuild the Black anti-war movement in the tradition of Black internationalism by contributing today.

 

Photo credit: Sputnik

Democrats and Republicans Collaborate on War

Democrats and Republicans Collaborate on War

On Friday, 139 Democrats joined with Republicans to pass a $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which included a rider preventing Trump from reducing the amount of U.S. imperialist troops on the Korean peninsula.

This NDAA was approved on the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the outright bombing and destruction of Korea, but didn’t end the U.S. war on the Korean people.

Presidents in recent history have all helped the transnational ruling class loot more and more wealth. Obama’s recent Mandela lecture was a prime example of the cognitive dissonance—or perhaps outright fraud—of these servants of the ruling class. In his lecture, Obama described how globalization led to the politics of fear and resentment, but he wouldn’t acknowledge how global capitalism and his presidency created the conditions for it.

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka also spoke about Democratic Party warmongers and the backwardness of Russiagate in an episode of “Your World News”.

In a recent Black Agenda Report piece, Ajamu writes, “Trump, Sanders, Obama, Mueller, and CNN are mere ideological distractions meant to dull our perceptions and prevent us from coming to terms with the awesome reality of our systemic domination.” So if we want to get angry about reporters and whistleblowers being thrown in jail, we can look at Obama for helping expand the state’s suppression.

It was also during the Obama administration that the United States moved with speed and force into invading and occupying Africa, and developing U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). However, Chinese investment as well as people’s liberation movements are turning the tide.

Democrats like Obama also have supported white supremacist regimes like Israel that have long targeted colonized children like Ahed Tamimi, who was recently freed for defending her people on their land.

In China, the state is punishing 37,000 officials for breaching a frugality code. If we applied that standard in the United States, we’d have no one left in the Senate or the White House but the people who clean those buildings!

One of the congresspeople we know would still be left in the building if a frugality code was enacted would be the late Brother Ron Dellums. The indomitable anti-war, anti-militarism congressman, recently died. He loudly advocated for reparations for Black peoples and for African liberation movements. We recognize his creativity and spirit. Presente, Ron!


EVENTS

The breakdown in U.S. society and the collaboration between leftists and liberals continues to disturb many of us. We must intensify our efforts to build the Black Alliance for Peace as a critical formation in the new anti-war movement. We are moving toward our first membership meeting in September. Please help up raise the $10,000 we need to pull off this meeting. Only you can help rebuild this movement.

Join BAP, member organizations Friends of the Congo and Pan African Community Action (PACA), and others for an August 18 panel discussion in Baltimore about the militarization of Black communities and AFRICOM.

The Black Is Back Coalition will hold its annual conference in Saint Louis, August 11-12. BAP is a member of this coalition and we encourage everyone to attend.

Consider attending the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases’ is hosting the First Annual International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases in November in Dublin, Ireland.

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 rebuild the Black anti-war movement in the tradition of Black internationalism by contributing today.

 

Photo credit: Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty

Liberals Go Mum on Israel's Apartheid Law

Liberals Go Mum on Israel's Apartheid Law

Did you notice? Liberals didn’t bother to condemn the new Israeli apartheid law. Nor did they say a word about that settler-colonial state’s recent attacks on Gaza.

We must be clear racist settler-colonial assault happening anywhere affects oppressed folks everywhere. Israelis have been training police forces in every state of the United States on their brutal methods of suppression they have practiced on the long-suffering Palestinians.

The increased militarization of U.S. society makes allowances for white violence on oppressed peoples on this stolen land. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, already notorious for protecting George Zimmerman when he killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is now shielding another white supremacist who has a history of harassment.

Washington, D.C.-based BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA) advocates for community control of the police, which would allow people to protect their communities without involving the racist state and their goons. “The issue is not training, but the policies of the police as determined by the government that takes its cues from the ruling class,” said BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman, who works with PACA. He was quoted at a recent meeting where residents grilled their elected officials.

Of course, the militarization of U.S. society inevitably reflects in U.S. imperialism abroad, including in Central America.

Another way the ruling class has suppressed revolutionary fervor on this stolen land has been through oppressed peoples’ need to identify with their oppressor, a type of Stockholm Syndrome happening right here in real time. BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley connects respectability politics to the latest odd collaboration between Black folks and the Democratic Party: “We must acknowledge that despite 400 years of existence here we will never be considered full citizens. There is no ‘we’ or ‘us’ when we discuss the individuals and entities who run this country.”

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka recalls how the most powerful unelected elements in the state had long ago moved to take down a president, and wonders why it wouldn’t happen again today.

Among the many insights Ajamu made on “A Trump Show”, a podcast by Dennis Trainor, Jr., include the foolish collaboration between leftists and liberals, making all so-called radicals a “suspicious class.”

The breakdown in U.S. society and the collaboration between leftists and liberals continues to disturb many of us who have been analyzing the repressive nature of the U.S. empire. It is all the more reason to intensify our efforts to build the alliance as a critical formation in the new anti-war movement. As we move toward our first membership meeting in September, please help us raise the $10,000 we need to pull it off. Only you can help rebuild this movement.

The Black Is Back Coalition will hold its annual conference in Saint Louis, August 11-12. BAP is a member of this coalition and we encourage everyone to attend.

Consider attending the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases’ is hosting the First Annual International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases in November in Dublin, Ireland.

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 rebuild the Black anti-war movement in the tradition of Black internationalism by contributing today.

 

 

Photo credit: Mahmud Hams / AFP / Getty Images

Upholding Black Radical Internationalism

Upholding Black Radical Internationalism

A wise person said being attacked by one’s enemies means you have become effective. Events over the last weekend at the Left Forum in New York City prove the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is now seen as a threat, making our 1-year-old organization a target.

It started with an article circulated against BAP’s national organizer, Ajamu Baraka, calling him an “Assadist” and a Trump supporter for opposing U.S. imperialist intervention in Syria. The weekend ended with a demonstration organized by an obscure group during Ajamu’s presentation at the closing plenary.

We welcome the attacks because we understand why they would see an independent, politically clear formation like BAP as a threat. But we also know that we need to be ready for even more attacks.

A revolutionary formation that upholds peace, social justice, and the struggle against war and militarism within the context of an anti-imperialist frame is a deep threat. But when you consider the base we are attempting to politicize and organize is African/Black working class-oriented activists and organizers, why, that is just too much for the system to handle.

Here are the recorded livestreams of panels we spoke at:

  1. A joint UNAC/BAP panel, “Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad”
  2. A Black Agenda Report panel, “Russiagate: Muzzling the Black Left and the March to War”
  3. “Venezuela Resists the U.S. Empire: Task Force on the Americas”
  4. Ajamu’s statement at Sunday’s closing plenary


BAP in Venezuela

BAP member Efia Nwangaza represented BAP as an election observer in the Venezuelan presidential election, which was closely observed around the world as the revolutionary Latin American state faces pressure from the United States to yield to transnational capitalist forces. Efia reported on her trip last week on a national call.


African Liberation Day

BAP commemorated African Liberation Day on May 25 with a statement demanding the United States get out of Africa. We followed up with a call for the Congressional Black Caucus and leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign to demand AFRICOM be dismantled.


Action Teams

We thank our research and Africa teams for meeting and moving the campaign development work forward. If you’d like to join these teams, apply to be a member or supporter.

Research Team:
Work collaboratively with BAP action teams and National Organizer to provide relevant information and analysis related to BAP programmatic work. Team will analyze data and write research findings for BAP public educational and advocacy materials, including policy briefs, blogs, toolkits, petitions and special issue reports. If you are interested, send a message to info@blackallianceforpeace.com with the subject line “Research Team”.

Social Media and Communications Team:
Provide support for press and social media work. Coordinate with staff to develop and maintain press list and update press sections of website. Press component of team will assist with producing press releases and pitch BAP actions, spokespersons and events to press, with special emphasis on developing contacts and pitching to alternative press. Social media component of team will gather news links for circulation, work with communications consultant to maintain our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts. If you are interested, send a message to info@blackallianceforpeace.com with the subject line “Social Media and Communications Team”.

We are only able to do this revolutionary work with support from anti-imperialist folks like yourself. Can we count on you to keep building the Black anti-war movement in the United States?

No compromise.

No retreat.

Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret, Netfa, Paul and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Help us re-build the Black anti-war movement in the tradition of Black internationalism by contributing today.

MLK, Winnie and More

MLK, Winnie and More

Yesterday was the Black Alliance for Peace’s first anniversary as well as the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We began this people(s)-centered human-rights project recognizing just as he did that the largest human empire to ever exist—subjugating millions of people across the globe with its brute, military force—was and is unsustainable.

In his memory, we have set out to accomplish a few things, one of which is to educate folks on the U.S. invasion of Africa. We have dedicated ourselves to developing an organizer’s toolkit on AFRICOM. We will soon hold regular national calls for the public. And our members are speaking to inspire acts of human liberation, as our National Organizer Ajamu Baraka did yesterday in Colorado to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination.

Would you be willing—for BAP’s first anniversary—to contribute what you can to help support this vital work?


Free Palestine

In a recent statement, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemned Israel in the murder of 18 Palestinians and attempted murder of about 1,500 Palestinians as 30,000 peacefully marched on Land Day (March 30). The Israeli government even bragged about the killing in a now-deleted message posted on Twitter, proclaiming they "know where every bullet landed." Israel has no reason to fear retribution. As a client state of the United States, it acts with complete impunity. Every gun, bullet, bomb and tank in Israel is paid for by our government. The United States uses its seat on the United Nations Security Council to protect Israel and to defend it against the international law it violates on a daily basis.

BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley writes, “Israel would not exist at all without U.S. support. But its supporters have turned the dependency upside down.”

The killings in Gaza occurred as people across the United States continued to demand justice for Stephon Clark, the Sacramento, California, man killed by police in that city. He is one of over 1,000 people in the United States who die at the hands of police every year. Police departments across the country are trained by the Israelis, who are expert at subjugating and terrorizing their colonized population.

That violence is what Black students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students were murdered by a gunman a few weeks ago, demanded must be addressed.

Unfortunately, as Ajamu writes, “The opportunism of the Democrats made these students and their pain easy targets.”


National Assembly for Black Liberation

Join us in taking a conscious step to unite the battlefronts of the Black working class into a national movement for Black liberation and radical transformation of the capitalist system—a system that oppresses and exploits multitudes throughout the world and threatens the sustainability of the Earth.

Register today for the National Assembly for Black Liberation, May 18-20.


R.I.P., Winnie Mandela

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died Monday. The same liberals who are silent in the face of the barbarism in Gaza, who tell you that Barack Obama was a godsend, who supported the white supremacists Bill and Hillary, are the same ones now telling us how problematic our dear revolutionary sister Winnie Mandela was. Winnie Mandela was our mother, the mother of our nations yet to be born. Our sister, Mother Winnie, was a freedom fighter who paid with her blood, her reputation, her life for standing with the masses of the oppressed. And for that, liberals—white and Black—turned on her. But for us who struggle, who will never surrender our dignity, we say we love you and we will continue the fight until we defeat the 500 year-old dominance of the white supremacist, colonial/capitalist patriarchy—and liberate the world.

No compromise.

No retreat.

In struggle,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. BAP is now 1 year old. Contribute today to keep the struggle for human liberation going!

Fifteen Years in Iraq

Fifteen Years in Iraq

Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. “Humanitarian intervention” to depose a “dictator” was the excuse. Now Iraq—home to a major civilization—is littered with military waste that has caused birth defects in Iraqi infants and has been a breeding ground for armed, right-wing Islamic groups. The bill for re-constructing Iraq is estimated at $100 billion. The United States says it will not pay a cent. Keeping Iraq in ruins allows the United States to control the oil Iraq produces and keep that crucial resource out of the hands of China and Russia, both of which have been demonized by the ruling class with the help of the Western press.

Voices from around the world lamented the anniversary. Here’s journalist Ben Norton on Twitter:

Iraqi Sami Ramadani mourned the destruction of his homeland:

 

Close to a half-million people (civilians and combatants) have been documented as casualties, according to the Iraq Body Count. Although many people associate the Iraq War with U.S. President George W. Bush, it was under Barack Obama’s reign that most deaths took place.

Here’s then-FBI director Robert Mueller lying about weapons of mass destruction being detected in Iraq. He’s now Special Counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections—basically, he’s helping concoct another lie to mislead the U.S. public into what could be another war to maintain Full Spectrum Dominance and loot resources, as the United States is doing in Afghanistan.



Oppose U.S. Imperialism—in Washington, D.C.

Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is supporting an action as part of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases at the Japanese Embassy this Friday to oppose the repressive sentence handed down by the court against Okinawan activists fighting for Okinawa’s self-determination and demanding the closure of toxic U.S. military bases.

Join the action in Washington, D.C., 1-3 p.m., March 23, at 2520 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Bring your signs and banners.



Say Her Name: Marielle Franco

A number of Black communities are under military occupation in Brazil because of the U.S.-supported right-wing government that is also persecuting a revolutionary candidate for president. Black human-rights activists organizing opposition have been targeted. This is not isolated. It is happening in Honduras, a nation where the United States—under Obama—gave a green light to a coup and is imposing a terroristic government on the people now. This is also the reality that the United States wishes for Venezuela, as it supports an opposition that has burnt alive Black people because they assumed the victims were supporters of the government. The latest fatality is Marielle Franco, a lesbian, Black Brazilian woman raised in a favela (Brazilian shanty town) who fought police brutality against the Black community. Thousands of Brazilians have since marched in the streets, protesting her state-sponsored murder.

Everywhere the people are resisting the dying—but dangerous—racist, Western, colonial/capitalist patriarchy, women are emerging in the leadership and paying a price as a consequence. From the racist apartheid state of Israel to Brazil, Colombia and South Africa, to the streets of the South Side of Chicago and Detroit, they have struck a rock as revolutionary women are assuming their rightful place at the center of our global resistance. Palestine’s Ahed Tamimi has been offered a plea deal of eight months in prison for bravely fighting Israel.

And here in the United States, Black folks are resisting the same white-supremacist apparatus that has been oppressing our people since we were stolen from Africa.

The Intercept reported the FBI tracked an activist who was involved with Black Lives Matter as that person traveled across the United States.

Radio program Law and Disorder interviewed BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka on these issues on a recent episode.



Free Herman Bell

The New York State Board of Parole granted parole for Black political prisoner Herman Bell, who has been imprisoned for 45 years. Since the Board’s decision, right-wing forces, including the Police Benevolent Association, have been angered.

It is important politicians and policymakers know public support exists for the release of Black political prisoners, many of whom have been jailed for over four decades.

Herman has a community of friends, family and loved ones eagerly awaiting his return. At 70, after decades inside, it is time for Herman to come home.

Here are three things you can do right now to support Herman Bell:

  1. CALL New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office: 518.474.8390
  2. EMAIL Governor Cuomo’s office here
  3. TWEET at Governor Cuomo using the following sample tweet: “.@NYGovCuomo: stand by the Parole Board’s lawful & just decision to release Herman Bell. At 70 years old and after more than 40 years of incarceration, his release is overdue. #BringHermanHome”



Gun Control and Militarism

While the U.S. public tries to figure out why gun violence is so prevalent, Ajamu placed that discussion in a larger context: That we need to make deeper connections between violence and weapons in the United States and U.S. imperialism around the world.

If you’d like to say no to militarism, get involved in opposing Trump’s military parade, a brash show of imperialist power.

You can also join a Spring Action near you. These events for April 14-15 were called by the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases—which BAP helped found—and are being endorsed by dozens of organizations across the country.

Twitter has been blocking the use of the Spring Action website. Help get the website unblocked by tweeting:

Hey, @Twitter. Stop blocking the revolution and unblock our website. In the meantime, head to springaction2018 DOT org if you’d like to get involved in taking down the empire. #SpringAgainstWar

No compromise.

No retreat.

Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Only your support can help beat the U.S. war machine. Contribute today.

Defending the Bolivarian Process

Defending the Bolivarian Process

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka represented the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) at a gathering in Caracas, Venezuela, March 5 to 7. It marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chavez.

Bringing together grassroots activists from 116 nation-states, the gathering produced the “Caracas Declaration,” a document that forcefully asserts revolutionary peoples from around the world will stand with the Venezuelan people to defend their sovereignty and revolutionary process. Here is a piece that captures the spirit of the gathering.

Below, you see Ajamu sitting in the front row, second from right, while Venezuela's current president, Nicolás Maduro, addresses an audience.
 

Ajamu and Maduro 1.jpg

Trump’s Military Parade

BAP was one of the lead formations that met on February 28, 2018, to collaborate on actions to oppose the Trump administration’s plan to hold a $22 million military parade. Meeting participants were united in opposition to the military parade and intent to mobilize people to Washington, D.C., or to any location if plans for the military parade change. For now, Trump wants the parade to take place on Veterans’ Day. Our plan is to outnumber parade supporters. However, it is important BAP determine the best way we respond as an organization to this provocation, which is an attempt to normalize war on the part of the Trump administration. In the meantime, for more information, you can go to http://notrumpmilitaryparade.us.


Upcoming Events

BAP is a member of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. It will hold its second electoral school from April 7 through April 9 in Saint Louis, Missouri. The electoral school is a means by which the coalition opens up a new front in the struggle for Black self-determination in the United States and elsewhere. It challenges the monopoly on the electoral arena by a select sector of our community with special ties to capitalist white power. You can register here.

Planning is heating up for the Spring Actions to oppose all wars scheduled to take place in the Bay Area, Chicago and New York City. Dozens of organizations have signed on to endorse this national call for regional actions. Check springaction2018.org or how to get involved in organizing before April 14-15, to get your organization signed on as an endorser and to download flyers.


Monitoring the World
BAP members and activists should closely follow the situation in Syria. Unlike others who might have the luxury of being confused about the world, we must at all times be crystal clear on global events. While the attention of the U.S. public was diverted to the Syrian Army battle with insurgents in East Ghouta, Turkey has busily recruited right-wing Islamic extremists and deployed them against the population in the Afrin region of Syria, with the result being a massive ethnic cleansing. Patrick Cockburn captures some of the horror of the latest assault on collective human rights in Syria.

BAP member Margaret Kimberley reminds us we need to continue to monitor the situation with North Korea. But she also points out the bi-partisan reality of militarism in the United States, as Democrats appear to be opposed to any efforts to de-escalate the situation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

BAP member Mekdes Amare wrote a piece on the devastating impact of war on people of color around the world, making connections the Western media and many Western leftists don’t.

No compromise.

No retreat.

Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. The oppressors won’t dismantle the U.S. war machine—that’s our job. Contribute today!

Keeping the Focus on Real-World Oppression

Keeping the Focus on Real-World Oppression

“Only in the world of comic-book fantasies is the United States a friend to the oppressed in Africa or anywhere else on the planet. In the real world, the U.S. is a predator, colonial/capitalist nation.”



We don’t have luxury of mindless diversions while the United States is aggressively using the awesome power of its military and financial weight to subvert, destabilize and destroy nations and people’s movements around the world.

Our responsibility—as we always emphasize—is to remain clear that we, the members and supporters of BAP, stand in fundamental solidarity with peoples and nations of the world against U.S. imperialism and aggression.

Here are a few efforts we would like you to support this week.


U.S. Out of Guantanamo!

BAP is organizing a national teleconference call 7 p.m. tomorrow (February 23) to commemorate the 115th anniversary of the capture of Cuba and Guantanamo. On this call, we will discuss efforts to close the torture chamber being run by the U.S. state on the island, as well as the militarization of the Caribbean and Latin America. You can register here. Speakers will include BAP member Netfa Freeman of the International Committee for Peace, Justice & Dignity and Pan-African Community Action (PACA) and James Patrick Jordan from the Alliance for Global Justice.


Defend Venezuela, No to U.S. Destabilization and Military Intervention!

The United States has openly called for a coup in Venezuela and has encouraged neighboring countries to move military equipment and troops to the border of Venezuela. Popular Resistance, one of BAP’s organizational supporters, developed actions that we should support.


New York Regional Planning Meeting for a Spring Action

Thursday, February 22, 2018, 7-9 p.m.
CWA Local 1180, 6 Harrison Street, New York, NY 10013

If you are a member of an organization with members in the New York City area, please ask them to attend this meeting to plan for a massive anti-war action to be held this spring.

For more information on the New York meeting, email springactions@gmail.com.


Reject AFRICOM

BAP’s Africa Team is working hard to develop our campaign to counter the military recolonization by the U.S./EU/NATO axis of domination. BAP already has a factsheet for you on the AFRICOM encroachment. We are also seeing disturbing reports that Germany has returned to Africa as part of the expanding European presence in Africa. Stay tuned for more information from the team.

Read BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka’s take on the impending crisis in Venezuela as a result of U.S. intervention in the region.

Rolling Stone published an article that makes the connection between gun violence in the U.S. and militarism. This is one of just a few articles in the media that draws the link.

No retreat.

No compromise.

In struggle,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Only your support can help beat the U.S. war machine. Contribute today.

We Stand in Solidarity with a Venezuela in Crisis

We Stand in Solidarity with a Venezuela in Crisis

Friends,

The Black Alliance for Peace has received troubling news of an impending military assault on the sovereign nation of Venezuela by states and forces allied with the United States.

The objective is to remove the elected government of Venezuela and turn over the country to the right-wing oligarchy. This move is in line with the strategic objective of the last two U.S. administrations that identified Venezuela as a threat to U.S. national interests, which means the Venezuelan process is seen as a threat to the interest of the Euro-American colonial/capitalist project.

We are calling on folks to closely monitor this situation. We will provide as much information on this as possible. Please alert the forces you work with about the situation as you receive it from us or acquire it for yourself, and let’s assist in raising the level of awareness on this situation. We are all part of the “Americas” and as our BAP principles reflect, we stand in solidarity with the struggling peoples of the global South who are resisting U.S. imperialism.

The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases—which BAP helped found—is organizing actions Feb. 16-23 for the 115th anniversary of the United States occupying Guantanamo. We demand the United States return Guantanamo to Cuba.

If you or your organization coordinate an action next week, please reply to this message with that information so we can include it in the weekly blast and on our event page.

As for BAP, we are organizing a national teleconference call for 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Feb. 23 on the U.S. presence in Guantanamo. We will announce our featured speakers in the next email blast. Tap this link to register for the call.

You will find value in this podcast episode of “Clearing the Fog Radio” that discusses amped up U.S. militarism—going from targeting so-called “terrorists” to outright war with nations. Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, founders of Popular Resistance, also interviewed BAP members Margaret Kimberley and Maurice Carney about the significance of the U.S. military invasion of Africa and what you can do about it.

BAP recently co-sponsored an event in New York City called “Militarization of African Communities at Home and Abroad.” Get insights you won’t hear in the corporate Western media in Part 1 and Part 2 of the recorded livestreams.

If you’re in Washington, D.C., join BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka and BAP member Maurice Carney on Saturday for the “All African Peoples Conference 60th Anniversary”. This event was coordinated by BAP member Netfa Freeman.

Finally, we appreciate the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) recognizing BAP’s work as part of the larger radical Black anti-war movement.

No retreat.

No compromise.

In struggle,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Help BAP bring together Black organizers and organizations to beat the U.S. war machine. Contribute today.

Militarized Police... Everywhere

Militarized Police... Everywhere

Trump’s new idea for a $22 million military march is a big, flashy way to normalize militarization.

However, let’s not be fooled.

We see more militarized police and soldiers in airports, train stations and bus stations. We see videos like this one of people on an Amtrak train being asked to produce “papers.”

That’s why it’s all the more important you join us in opposing the increased show of militarization.

The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases—which BAP helped found—is organizing actions Feb. 16-23 to demand the United States return Guantanamo to Cuba as well as a national action April 14-15 to demand the United States end all of its illegal wars abroad. A national conference call held Saturday attracted dozens of organizers who are ready to coordinate massive events.

Now onto domestic concerns: The FBI set itself up for a snarky comeback.

 

Snarky comeback



And here’s a piece on the federally subsidized terror group’s “Black-Identity Extremist”  program. Now, we had mentioned Rakem Balogun's arrest in December. Any Black person who thinks the FBI is working in their best interest is delusional. That's why we rail against the Congressional Black Caucus as much as we do. The CBC is the Black mis-leadership class that votes in favor of illegal wars on Black and Brown people and fawns over the FBI.

Speaking of totalitarianism, read what BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka has to say in his latest illuminating piece about the ruling class using Trump as a diversion.

Now, onto another racist, settler-colonial state: Israel. It is merely fulfilling its mission of creating an ethno-state by placing a bounty on African migrants.

Take a moment to read about the linked oppressions of the Vietnamese and Blacks in the United States in this piece by our friend, Abayomi Azikiwe of the Pan-African Newswire.

You can find many events being held around the country on our Events page, including a talk by BAP member organization Friends of the Congo titled, “Militarization of African Communities at Home and Abroad” at 7 p.m. today in New York City.

In struggle,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Help BAP organize its national gathering to bring together key Black organizers and organizations. Contribute today!

 

Image credit: Brian Smialowski/Getty

The Truth About Cuba and North Korea

The Truth About Cuba and North Korea

If you had watched the U.S. president’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, you would have noticed one thing: Victim blaming.

Trump has done what U.S. presidents have engaged in since the 1950s.

After attacking the Korean peninsula until millions of people were killed and the landscape decimated, the United States continued to wage war in the form of sanctions on imports and exports, and simulated invasions on North Korea’s border.

Meanwhile, Cuba is being attacked for successfully resisting U.S. imperialism. While folks in the United States struggle to pay hospital bills, Cuba provides free, comprehensive healthcare and trains doctors from around the world. Again, Cuba exists while facing pressure to keep its people free from U.S. harm.

That is why the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) stands in firm opposition to Trump’s announcement to keep the Guantanamo dungeon open on captured Cuba land. As a founding member organization of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, we say the United States must get out of Cuba, close the inhumane prison and return the land back to the Cuban people.

BAP invites those of you in the New York City area to attend an emergency demonstration organized by Witness Against Torture and Justice for Muslims Collective at 12 p.m. today in Grand Central Terminal.

We at BAP—being Black internationalists—understand we must stand with oppressed peoples around the world, particularly those who are facing the horror of being attacked and exploited by the U.S. ruling class and its state.

Our coalition against U.S. foreign military bases is organizing actions Feb. 16-23 to demand the United States return Guantanamo to Cuba as well as a national action April 14-15 to demand the United States end all of its illegal wars abroad. Register for this conference call to learn how your organization can get involved.

While we’re on the subject of military bases, the anti-bases movement is strong in Latin America, according to James Patrick Jordan.

A few weeks ago, the United States Africa Command—better known as AFRICOM—blacklisted journalist Nick Turse. He’s been a major source of coverage on the U.S. military invasion of Africa. This is a predictable response from the empire, given its time as a superpower is coming close to an end in this multi-polar world. So of course, now he’s not a “legitimate journalist.”

Take a moment to sign up for World Socialist Web Site’s newsletter. It and many left-leaning websites have seen their website visits tumble since Google began collaborating with the U.S. ruling class.

Another Black activist, Luis Fernando Ramos Carabali, was murdered recently in the nation of Colombia, which has been rocked by racial and gender violence for years. This brother was a member of Proceso de Comunidades Negras (Black Communities Process).

Caribbean nations are demanding European nations pay reparations for centuries of enslavement, genocide and exploitation. A declaration was authored by Pan-Africanist and socialist popular forces in Barbados January 13 and submitted to the people and civil society organizations of the Caribbean for their endorsement and adoption.

Congo expert and BAP member Maurice Carney will present a talk titled “Militarization of African Communities at Home and Abroad” on February 8 in New York City.

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka will be interviewed live by Real Progressives tomorrow at 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on Facebook. Sign up to be reminded to watch the show.

Of course, you can find events held by other organizations on our Events page.

Let’s continue to build the resistance we all have been waiting for!

In struggle,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Help re-build the Black anti-war movement. Contribute today!

U.S. Out of Africa!

U.S. Out of Africa!

We don’t know if we made it clear in last week’s message, but we’d like to thank you for supporting the Black Alliance for Peace. Your financial contributions helped us cover the cost of transporting several BAP members to the Conference Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases. Here’s a photo of us at our dinner that weekend!

BAP at No Foreign Bases Conference 1.13.2018

Folks attending our conference plenary on AFRICOM say it was perhaps the best plenary of the weekend (we’re merely reporting their enthusiasm!). In fact, we were able to successfully follow through on our organizational mission: Help re-develop and re-capture the anti-war, anti-imperialist position of the Black radical tradition. That includes bringing a Black internationalist perspective to these conversations about the U.S. empire.

Independent journalist Eva Bartlett interviewed BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka on the impact of the conference. This week, BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley’s plenary talk on U.S. involvement in Africa and the so-called resistance propped up by the Democratic Party was featured on Black Agenda Radio.

Here’s a great piece in The Nation that covers the conference. KPFA in Berkeley, California, reported on the conference, too. You also can check out our Twitter moment, a compilation of tweets about our presence there.

In case you were looking for videos of all conference speakers, our friend Will Griffin at The Peace Report has got you.

Moving on from the conference, on the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration, Ajamu said it is a mistake to only focus on Trump’s behavior in critiquing him and the U.S. state in this segment of “Loud & Clear with Brian Becker.”

In case you couldn’t get enough of Congo expert and BAP member Maurice Carney, he will present a talk titled “Militarization of African Communities at Home and Abroad” on February 8 in New York City. Make sure to notify your friends.

We’d like to invite you to take a look at Black4Palestine’s year-end newsletter and follow this revolutionary, intersectional formation. And check out the U.S. Human Rights Network’s “2017 Status Report on Human Rights in the United States.”

You may have noticed Telesur English’s Facebook page was missing early yesterday morning. It suddenly re-appeared after enormous outcry on social media. We must remain vigilant as various corporate players collaborate with the state to limit the amount of information we can access. Being in the center of this empire, it’s on us to do the work of decolonizing this land and stopping the U.S. war machine.

As a reminder: If you’re not a BAP member and you are of African descent, you can apply here for membership. Being a BAP member means you can participate on one of the following action teams.

Social Media and Communications Team
Provide support for BAP press and social media work. Coordinate with staff to develop and maintain press list, update media sections of website. Press component of team will assist with producing press releases and pitch BAP actions, spokespersons and events to press, with special emphasis on developing contacts and pitching to alternative press. Social media component of team will gather news links for circulation, work with Communications Advisor to maintain our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts, and coordinate BAP livestreaming.  

Web Team
Maintain BAP webpage and develop creative ways to optimize the site to support BAP work. Other duties will be determined in consultation with Communications Advisor.  

Research Team
Work collaboratively with BAP action teams and National Organizer to provide relevant information and analysis related to BAP programmatic work. Team will analyze data and write research findings for BAP public educational and advocacy materials, including policy briefs, blogs, toolkits, petitions and special issue reports.

Conference Organizing Team
Work with National Organizer and BAP Coordinating Committee to plan, coordinate and implement all aspects of the BAP national gathering. Specific technical responsibilities will include assisting with travel/lodging logistics, menu and meal process, volunteer recruitment and management, developing monitoring & implementing conference organizing plan and timeline, and registration process. Will be looking for individuals with experience with a web-based registration process and political experience with democratic, participatory decision-making processes.

Let’s continue to build the resistance we all have been waiting for!

In struggle,
Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande
Coordinating Committee
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. The people cannot depend on the oppressors for quality information. That’s where BAP comes in. Contribute today!