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

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.

Yemeni Children Die. The Media Doesn't Cry.

The Saudis dropped a 500-pound MK-82 bomb on a school bus, killing 54 Yemeni children and injuring dozens who were riding a school bus this past week. The murder of these innocent beings has justice-minded people demanding an end to the U.S.-funded Saudi war on this poor country. Yemen holds a strategic position at the junction of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

What is sad is this violation of U.S. and international laws has received so little media coverage. Over the past three years, the Saudi government has attacked civilians at weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals—and the U.S. media has barely spoken up. Why would it? As mouthpieces for the ruling class, it turns away from the injustice and distracts people with the fake news of Russiagate.

In the Mediterranean region, refugees were recently denied entry into Italy. The migrant situation has taken a turn, with neocolonial powers such as Spain, Britain, Italy and Portugal refusing to accept refugees. This further traumatizes the hundreds of thousands of poor people who have already tried to escape European neocolonialism on the African continent, scraping together enough money to find their way across the continent, making the dangerous journey through the Sahara Desert, then being stranded on a boat because it is not allowed to disembark at the shores of these criminal states that are responsible for the misery.

Africans leave because their home countries cooperate with the United States. In a piece about NATO being a protection racket, Ann Garrison writes, “Wikileaks provides a wealth of primary source material about Africa and every other corner of the world as seen through the eye of the empire and its vassals and opponents.” Strangely enough, the so-called left in the United States has swung in favor of NATO, all because Trump has spoken out against NATO. But BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka says, “The responsibility of the left is to build on Trump’s anti-NATO remarks—whatever his motivations—by offering a real critique of NATO.” Read Ajamu’s latest piece on warmongering by both Republicans and Democrats.

More strange things are coming out of Washington in its push to overthrow the Bolivarian state of Venezuela. Now the United States says Brazil—a country it has helped turn right-wing—should “lead the solution to Venezuela”. If this sounds a little out there, consider the United States had announced years ago it intended to conduct “unconventional warfare” in its quest to disrupt people’s movements in Latin America. BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley writes, “Anyone who claims to be anti-war must also oppose the ongoing horrors visited upon the Venezuelan people. They are suffering and dying because of decisions made by the bipartisan war party.” Read more of her take on the U.S. war being waged on Venezuela.

Last week, we told you about how Alex Jones being shut down on internet platforms was actually the start of the latest censorship move aimed at the left. In case you didn’t hear, both Venezuelanalysis.com and Telesur were recently censored by Facebook. Folks, the state may be coming for BAP soon. That’s why we need all of the support we can get. We’re organizing our first membership meeting for September 21-22 in Atlanta. Only you can help us raise $10,000 to beat back this empire.


EVENTS

This Saturday in Baltimore: Join BAP, member organizations Friends of the Congo and Pan African Community Action (PACA), and other prominent Black activists for a panel discussion about the militarization of Black communities and the impact of AFRICOM on Black folks. This event is happening in the same city where news just broke about a Black Baltimore police officer punching a man. Color doesn’t matter because all police officers are tools of the repressive state.

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.

Photo credit: Hani Mohammed/AP

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

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

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

Liberal Madness and the Anti-war Imperative

The ongoing and deepening crisis of U.S. society has caused anger, fear and confusion. The precipitous decline of the standard of living for millions of people in the United States helped produce the conditions for the election of Trump. This, in turn, created the Democrats' irrational anti-Russia position. The problem, of course, is that whether it is taking aggressive, militaristic positions with either Russia or North Korea, pushing an already unstable and reckless Trump administration to be more forceful is a dangerous position that could easily pull the United States into yet another military conflict. But that is precisely what the Democrats and their liberal allies have been demanding, with potentially disastrous consequences for millions.

Fortunately, in the midst of an environment that seems to be ripe for war, more and more people are seeing the need for a new anti-war movement. BAP has received messages asking us to become more visible and wanting to know the state of the broader anti-war and anti-imperialist movement in the United States.

This is why it is absolutely imperative we intensify our efforts to build the alliance as a critical formation in the new anti-war movement. As 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.

This week, BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley talks about the madness of liberals, in this case Black liberals on Russiagate and U.S. violence: “Black people should be first in line when it comes to casting doubt on the work of intelligence agencies and federal prosecutors. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) ought to uphold the proud tradition of defying corrupt law enforcement. Instead they prove themselves to be happy tools of the neoliberal war party.”

While Democrats and much of the U.S. left collude with the ruling elite and its war agenda, U.S. military planning continues with very little notice and no effective opposition. Nick Turse reveals how the use of small, mobile special forces units are being used around the world by the Pentagon, especially in Africa.

Most commentators on the Putin-Trump summit, either missed or deliberately failed to call attention to one of the main points of interests for the United States and Russia—the so-called Middle East, and in particular Syria and Israel because of how both countries are connected to their mutual interests. The Russians, who are interested in advancing their interests in the region, have always collaborated with the United States and other Western powers on key issues related to Israel. Geopolitical analyst Andrew Korybko suggests that during those two hours between Putin and Trump, they developed a common understanding and commitment on Iranian influence in Syria and the interests of Israel.

State violence and repression in the United States is of central concern for BAP. Efia Nwangaza, director of the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination in Greenville, South Carolina, and recent BAP representative as an election observer in Venezuela, provides an update on a dangerous situation in the South Carolina prison system.

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka’s observations on the crisis around the world and in the United States can be found here.

Activist Danny Haiphong says left-wing organizers and journalists must raise the issue of imperialist war because the United States uses trillions of dollars stolen from workers and poor people to destabilize nations abroad.

The BAP bi-monthly conference call will take place Saturday. Details were sent to the BAP member listserv.

We are also moving toward our first in-person membership meeting, scheduled for September 21-22 in Atlanta, Georgia. Members, save that date and look out for more information.

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.

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: Scott Olson/Getty Images

No One Hands Out Human Rights

This week marks the third anniversary of Sandra Bland's death.

The 28-year-old Black woman died in police custody and her demise illustrates the "historically-rooted brutal experience of Black women within the U.S. prison industrial complex," according to Black Perspectives.

We at the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) have been committed to connecting the mass incarceration and militarization of Black communities to the workings of the criminal U.S. state that serves the transnational capitalist class. We will be releasing materials on our work in the coming months.

In an interview about the role of the Supreme Court, BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, historian Rudy Acuna, and National Lawyers Guild leadership sought to put into historical context the anxiety many felt regarding the vacancies Donald Trump is able to fill.

Ajamu said:

“The Supreme Court has never been an institution beyond and above the politics of white supremacy … as are all the elements of the U.S state.”

“In other words, the court as an instrument reflecting the race and class power of the ruling elite should never be seen as source of protection for the long-term collective human rights of Black/African people in the United States.”

Ajamu went on to say:

“Non-state alternative power is the only path open for resistance at this moment in history. The articulation of a set of rights that people are prepared to struggle for as part of a transitional program is a first step that will need to be followed up with intensified organizing.”

“Nothing has changed for us because of Trump’s nomination. Our task continues to be to organize, educate and build resistance.”

The BAP bi-monthly conference call will take place July 21. Information to register for the call will be sent to the BAP member listserv.

We are also moving toward our first in-person membership meeting, scheduled for September 21-22 in Atlanta, Georgia. Members, save that date and look out for more information.

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.

If you’re in Washington, D.C., attend BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action’s event on Sunday, “Ending Gun Violence: The Power of Community”.

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.

Independence for Who?

We at the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) ask the white-supremacist imperialists’: Independence for who? Certainly not for the oppressed.

An independence day means nothing to those of us who have been the victims of their crimes on this stolen land and around the world.

The young slave owners in the “American” colony wanted independence from their colonial government, so they could be free to steal more indigenous land and expand slavery. Once freed from King George, they embarked on a murderous rampage, where they raped, enslaved, burnt villages, and killed men, women and children from one coast to the other. Their crimes against humanity earned them a continent 200 years ago and their ongoing violent criminality is what maintains their fragile dominance today.    

For us, independence must mean independence from them if we want life, justice and peace. As long as we are under their control, our children and the children of countless others will never know peace. That is why we struggle, that is why we build, and that is why we come to you and ask you to support us. But it is also why we come to you and ask you to join us in struggle.

If you have not donated to BAP, please consider becoming a monthly sustainer for just $10 a month. You can also give a generous tax-exempt donation of any amount. Remember that we don’t receive any corporate or foundation money—we exist completely on support from our members, supporters and the public.

We are moving toward our first membership meeting scheduled for September 21-22 in Atlanta, Georgia. Members, save that date and look out for more information.

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.

Puerto Rican sister Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled an electoral upset in New York, knocking off an entrenched leader of the Democratic Party. Ocasio ran as a socialist and has a strong platform on what she calls the peace economy. However, she ran as a Democrat and took some troubling positions, including repeating Democratic Party talking points on Russia-gate and not quite finding her grounding on presenting her socialist politics. BAP Coordinating Committee member and Black Agenda Report Senior Editor and Contributor Margaret Kimberley provides an insightful analysis of this campaign, the challenges Ocasio-Cortez faces, as well as what seems to happen in the left community when a leftist enters a space usually denied to us.

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.

No Migration Without Economic Exploitation

Why are thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence and economic devastation and flocking to the United States? Because of the American dream? Because the streets are paved in gold?

If you’ve been following us over the past year, you know we keep it real.

U.S. multi-national corporations’ and finance capital’s penetration of nations and control of peoples have wreaked the economic distortions, social violence, austerity and lack of democracy that push and pull people to leave their countries in search of security, peace and material survival.

Yet these issues are presented as if they just descended from the heavens.

What we are seeing is the inevitable and predictable consequences of the policies of successive U.S. administrations over the last three decades—all with the understanding that the neoliberal agenda would require a wall be built on the U.S.-Mexico border.

NAFTA caused the first wave of migration, wherein millions of farmers were uprooted, thousands of women were forced into the slave conditions of the Maquiladoras and thousands of men sought sometimes dangerous work in the United States and Canada.

Members of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) understand the link between the U.S.-backed coup in Honduras during the Obama administration and the subsequent violence and social instability that compelled so many to make the long trek from that embattled nation.

And we don’t forget the irony that the one nation in Central America in which conditions didn’t force people to leave is Nicaragua, a state now engulfed in an intensifying social conflict that many suggest is being supported by elements of the U.S. state and its affiliated institutions.

Migration is a class issue and migrants have human rights that must be protected. They don’t lose their human rights just because they cross a border and are “undocumented.” Unfortunately, U.S. officials’ understanding of what constitutes human rights is incredibly narrow. The United States doesn’t respect the human rights of migrants because they don’t even recognize the human rights of their own citizens. This was reflected in the recently released United Nations report on growing U.S. poverty.

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka writes that this narrow understanding of human rights ensures the United States will continue to violate human rights.

Here is an analysis that makes the link between war, economic exploitation and migration.

And while people are outraged—as they should be—that families were being busted up and children were being taken away and objectively imprisoned, it is important to note this classist and racist assault is not anything new for Black people. This leads BAP Coordinating Committee member and Black Agenda Report Senior Editor Margaret Kimberley to ask why the public has no sympathy for Black people.

No compromise.

No retreat.

In struggle,
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!

Photo credit: Associated Press

It's Official: The United States Is a Rogue State

It is clear U.S. officials have no intention of operating within the rule-based international order designed to govern relations between states and between people and governments.

As one of the few nations on the planet having avoided signing and/or ratifying most major human-rights treaties, it appears the United States decided pretending to be a defender of human rights—even for domestic propaganda purposes—would no longer be credible. And so, it ended the charade.

The decision by the Trump administration to quit the United Nations Human Rights Council should not have been a surprise. This step as well as the revelation that it has been engaging in the barbaric practice of detaining everyone at the border—including people with refugee and asylum claims, and separating them from their children—only solidified the United States is the number one human-rights abuser in the world.

For those of us in the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), the need for organizing and education could not be more clear.  The hands of both capitalist parties are dirty. They have shown a cynical disregard for the human rights of working-class and poor people in the United States and abroad. Keeping the focus on those abuses and building alternative power to one day build a real democracy and a society dedicated to the protection of human rights and a global system of justice free of war, repression and domination is our historic task.

What’s been occurring in Yemen should further solidify the position that the United States is a rogue state. It has funded the Saudi Arabian kingdom of thugs, which has been bombing the poor coastal country of Yemen for three years. Hunger and genocide have raged since, with millions dying. BAP has long taken a position against this U.S.-funded genocide.

Over in Colombia, the right wing was strengthened with the election of Ivan Duque. Analyzing the vote results shows Afro-Colombians overwhelmingly chose the left-wing candidate, Gustavo Petro. Major paramilitary groups have since threatened Black leaders who supported him.

Here on this stolen land called the United States, human-rights violations are a daily occurrence for some of us. We can point to the story of Debbie Africa, who was imprisoned when she was 8 months pregnant, gave birth in a prison cell, had her son taken from her a few days after giving birth, and was reunited with him this week after 39 years apart.

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka spoke about the racist roots of the U.S. empire on Black Agenda Radio. “For the Democrats, operating from this mangled, white supremacist consciousness and world view,” Trump’s willingness to call off scheduled war games in Korea, “felt like giving the natives too much.”

Our Research Team has been moving the campaign-development work forward. If you’d like to join this team, 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”.

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.

Photo credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection/AP

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.

Black Left Unity and Venezuela's Election

Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) members and member organizations from Baltimore, New York City and Washington, D.C., attended the National Assembly for Black Liberation in Durham, North Carolina, this past weekend—they made a significant impact on the historic proceedings to develop a unified Black left in the United States. Below are just some of our members who were in attendance.

BAP introduced a resolution to include anti-militarism and anti-imperialism as part of the reinvigorated effort’s demands. Other resolutions presented by members of the Black left include one censuring the Zionist, genocidal settler-colonial state of Israel, which is armed with nuclear weapons with the help of the United States.

BAP was recognized for bringing a strong presence to the assembly and for leading the discussion during a breakout session called “End All Wars.” The assembly also agreed to abide by BAP’s Principles of Unity.

Sending a delegation of about a dozen people to the assembly cost BAP $3,000. We have already raised close to $1,000.

Can we count on you to help BAP cover the cost of this historic trip to re-build the Black anti-war movement?


BAP in Venezuela

BAP member Efia Nwangaza took a detour this past weekend. Instead of joining us for the assembly in Durham, she got on a plane to Caracas to represent BAP as an election observer in a presidential election being closely observed around the world as the revolutionary Latin American state faces pressure from the United States to yield to transnational capitalist forces.

Register for a call to hear Efia’s reportback and ask her questions at 7 p.m., Eastern Time, on Tuesday, May 29.

Folks in Venezuela have long admired BAP’s work, having also invited BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka as a BAP representative to another historic gathering in March.

Ajamu also recently explained the racist pattern that has helped the pan-European colonial project loot the world’s resources and oppress peoples of the world in this CounterPunch article.

BAP member Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture delivered a statement on behalf of BAP on May 14 at a demonstration against the Philadelphia Orchestra, which has chosen to perform in Israel despite great opposition from the community. The campaign to stop the orchestra is called Philly Don’t Orchestrate Apartheid and it is now in its eighth week. You can watch the video of Asantewaa on this page.

BAP member Netfa Freeman interviewed Ajamu on the “Blue Lives Matter” bill on Netfa’s radio program “Voices with Vision”. Watch the video here.


Join BAP’s Action Teams

This is an opportunity for both members and supporters to build BAP’s body of work to combat militarism and imperialism. You can become a member or a supporter by applying here.

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”.

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.

The Ugly Face of Racist Settler-Colonialism

During this historic week, we remained in solidarity with the oppressed people of Gaza, who so valiantly resisted Israel’s U.S.-subsidized military might to re-claim their right of return to their homeland. Although they weren’t able to pass through the fence and fend off Israeli snipers, their noble efforts to do so once again revealed the reality of the Israeli settler-colonial project.

The Black Alliance for Peace says the United States is just as complicit in the murders of more than 50 Palestinians during the 70th anniversary of the Nakba. “The systematic violence of ethnic cleansing, house demolitions, exile, assassinations, land thefts, bombings, and the denial of water and other vital services that provide basic dignity could not have occurred without ongoing support from the United States, as well as both major political parties in the United States, the corporate press and every major institution of U.S. society, including many churches.” Read our complete statement.

We also say the United States has no one to blame but itself for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) refusing to now meet with the Republic of Korea (RoK). Why, you ask? Because the United States continues to arrogantly pursue its goal of conducting joint military exercises with the vassal state of RoK, right on its border with the DPRK. Imagine a so-called “war game” against you happening right outside your house. That’s what is being done here. Read our complete statement on this matter.

This week, BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka spoke to Black Agenda Radio about how peace is unattainable without an anti-imperialist position. Indeed, the United States is so arrogant, it can lose up to $21 trillion (mind you, the U.S. GDP is $18 trillion) with little public uproar.

This is your last chance to register for the National Assembly for Black Liberation, being held May 18-20 in Durham, North Carolina. A delegation of a dozen radical Black activists from BAP will attend. If successful, this historic gathering will unify and strengthen the Black left in the United States. BAP is introducing a resolution at the assembly to include anti-militarism and anti-imperialism as part of the reinvigorated effort’s demands. We have already raised close to $1,000 toward partial support for our delegation. But we really need $3,000 to be able to provide partial support to these BAP members.

Can we count on you to help re-build the Black anti-war movement?

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. We’re sending 12 radical Black activists to the National Assembly for Black Liberation. Help us re-build the Black anti-war movement in the tradition of Black internationalism by contributing today.

Photo credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP-Getty Images

Trump Destroyed the Iran Deal

In pulling the United States out of the Iran deal, we can say the only ones happy are the neocons, liberal interventionists, Israel and Saudi Arabia. This is a clear move toward war. After President Donald Trump’s irresponsible announcement, revealing the United States again cannot be trusted to keep its word, he took it further and threatened Iran not to build nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia renewed its threat that it would build a bomb if Iran did so. Meanwhile, Israel attacked Iranian positions in Syria as the world reeled from Trump’s immature move.

At the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), we remain steadfast internationalists. We will continue to defend the right of oppressed peoples and states under attack by U.S. imperialism. It is not our place to get into the weeds and critique other states’ business. It is for us to stand to dismantle the U.S. empire.

May Day just passed, and we will continue to stress workers of the world must include anti-militarism and anti-imperialism in their demands. It might sound cliché to say we are living in dangerous times. But with the Iran deal ripped up and Korean peace and re-unification in jeopardy as the U.S. empire insists on keeping its military bases on the peninsula, it is up to the workers to take down this oppressive global structure.

We also wanted to bring your attention to our friend, former CIA agent-turned-activist Ray McGovern, who was brutalized while being arrested for protesting at the U.S. Senate hearing of Gina Haspel. Haspel had authorized the black site in Thailand where CIA detainees from the around the world had been tortured. The United States being in such a weak geopolitical position has decided to let its civilized mask fall and is now unleashing every weapon against humanity.

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka also spoke with progressive journalist Tim Black about the dangerous game the United States is playing around the world and how the struggles of the African diaspora around the world and on the continent are connected to the struggles of Blacks in the United States.

As you’ve seen in previous weekly updates, BAP is preparing to send a delegation of a dozen radical Black activists to Durham, North Carolina, to attend the National Assembly for Black Liberation, being held May 18-20. If successful, this historic gathering will unify and strengthen left Black forces in the United States. BAP is introducing a resolution at the assembly to include anti-militarism and anti-imperialism as part of the reinvigorated effort’s demands. We must raise $3,000 to be able to provide partial support to these BAP members. Can we count on you to help re-build the Black anti-war movement?

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. We’re sending 12 radical Black activists to the National Assembly for Black Liberation. Help us re-build the Black anti-war movement in the tradition of Black internationalism by contributing today.

War Is a Working-Class Issue

Workers from around the world took to the streets on May 1—International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day—to proclaim on their day they were not going to surrender to the logic of capitalist dehumanization and plunder that the ruling class imposes on the peoples of the world.

Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) joined in by declaring our solidarity with those workers because we are those workers. In our statement, we reminded everyone that it is the working class and poor who end up being the cannon fodder for imperialist wars. We repeated once again what is now becoming our slogan: “Not one drop of blood from the working class and poor in defense of the gangsterism of the capitalist ruling class.”


Read our May Day statement here.


Imperialist wars abroad are linked to capitalist-induced class repression on the stolen, occupied land called the United States. On May Day in 2008, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) proved labor strikes can stop these attacks on humanity.

The people of the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico have suffered since September due to a lack of electricity that is a direct consequence of colonial destruction and austerity measures. On May Day, they faced further violence at the hands of goons who work for the colonial overseer when Puerto Ricans rightfully expressed their indignation in the streets.

In France, the neoliberal policies of President Emmanuel Macron sparked massive demonstrations on May 1. Thousands of workers poured into the streets in opposition to his support for an even more militarized agenda than what his predecessors had proposed. This includes a plan to re-introduce a military draft.

Meanwhile, people in the Cuban socialist state 90 miles from the U.S. imperial core say they don’t need to demand their rights as workers because they already have them in place.


Black Activists Still Imprisoned

Afro-Colombians fear for the lives of two leaders of the Black Communities Process, or PCN, the main organization defending the collective land rights of descendants of African slaves. Sara Quiñonez and her mother, Tulia Maris Valencia, were detained on false charges of collaborating with the ELN guerilla group—an allegation that could mark them for assassination. But the PCN is an organization that “promotes peace and peaceful struggle,” said PCN organizer and BAP member Charo Mina-Rojas, who called on leftists everywhere to demand the two women’s release during an interview with BAP member Glen Ford on Black Agenda Report Radio.

You can find information on how you can support these two freedom fighters here.


Upcoming Event

War, revolution and organizing the Black left is on the agenda for the National Assembly for Black Liberation. We encourage Black left forces to participate. Information on the conference can be found here.

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!

The People Confronted U.S. Gangsterism

The United States led forces including the United Kingdom and France to attack Syria in pre-dawn hours Saturday over what they say is a chemical-weapons attack.

This brought out activists and organizers of many stripes over the past weekend, including Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) members.

And we were clear: Not one drop of blood from the working class and poor in defense of the gangsterism of the capitalist ruling class.

BAP members spoke and participated at Spring Action 2018 events across the United States at the following locations:

1. Atlanta: Efia Nwangaza from the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination of Greenville, S.C., a BAP member organization
2. Baltimore: BAP members Mekdes Ferguson and Vanessa Beck
3. Greenwich, Connecticut:  Maurice Carney from Friends of the Congo, a BAP member organization
4. Washington, D.C.: Netfa Freeman from Pan-African Community Action, a BAP member organization
5. New York City: BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka and BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley

Watch videos of their talks.

Check out photos from the day.

The Black Is Back Coalition (BiBC) for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, of which BAP is a member, also released a searing statement connecting the recent U.S.-led attack on Syria to the U.S. state’s violence against Black bodies. It starts: “The Black is Back Coalition is accustomed to the lies of the U.S. government and its several police agencies every time they murder unarmed black men, women and children throughout the U.S.”

BAP had also released a statement last week before the attack took place.

State sanctioned violence in the colonized Black and Brown zones of non-being by the domestic military force referred to as "the police" and state violence in the form of interventions, proxy wars, sanctions, destabilization campaigns and support for anti-democratic brutal regimes in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Honduras, are two sides of the same white supremacist colonial/capitalist coin. The objective is the same—maintain the dominance of the oppressive Western imperial project against all challenges, both foreign and domestic.

Young people who formed a new group in Baltimore called Youth Against War and Fascism recently blocked the entrance of a CIA recruiting event at Johns Hopkins University. It’s vitally important we keep the police, military and state agents out of our schools.
 

Upcoming Events

What’s normally left out of the bio circulated about physicist Albert Einstein was that he was tracked by the FBI because of his political views. If you’re in New York City, you can hear Ajamu speak about the foreword he wrote about McCarthyism—past and current—for author Fred Jerome’s new book, “The Einstein File: The FBI’s Secret War Against the World’s Most Famous Scientist”. Get details and RSVP for tonight’s event.

BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action and other organizations will host a screening of the film, “Black Cop,” and lead a discussion afterward. RSVP for this April 23 Washington, D.C. event.

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 for the National Assembly for Black Liberation, May 18-20 in Durham, North Carolina.

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.

Photo credit: AP/Hassan Ammar

Say No to U.S. Gangsterism

What power has given the U.S. gangster state the right to unilaterally attack any nation on this planet?

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) answered that question in a statement we released Tuesday.

That some who call themselves radicals can remain silent about the consequences of a possible U.S. military intervention into Syria is a reflection of the bankruptcy of the imperial left that continues to collaborate with the Western and U.S. white supremacist, colonial/capitalist patriarchy.

The children of Yemen have been starving and the U.S.-supported apartheid state of Israel murdered two dozen Palestinians. Yet, we heard nothing in response from the ruling class and its collaborators in the corporate media.

We are now supposed to believe the racist Trump administration is so committed to Syrian Arab life that it feels morally compelled to intervene. Do you see the obscenity? Some Westerners apparently don’t, hence the race to war.

We would laugh, but this is a matter of life and death. And we’re on the side of justice. That’s why we don’t accept the imperialist nonsense coming out corporate-media outlets.

In fact, warmongering Democrats are on a quest to start World War III, using former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s book tour to rationalize “humanitarian intervention.” Thankfully, a few anti-imperialists who organize in the center of the empire made sure she would not get to spread that propaganda in peace. Check out the five times Albright was disrupted during her New York City event on Tuesday. It warms our hearts that a few brave humans continue to speak out under the weight of imperial propaganda.

The sentiment seems to be spreading beyond political circles. More than 3,000 Google employees demanded the technology company cease its drone project for the Pentagon.

Now for once, it would be fantastic if the United States acted with decency. But based on its history, we don't expect that to happen without exceptional public pressure. That’s why we ask you to show up this weekend in your city for a Spring Action to demand the United States exit Syria and other oppressed nations, and end its slaughter of innocents abroad as well as right here in the belly of the empire: springaction2018.org

Although Spring Actions are occurring across the United States, BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka can only be in one place at one time. Catch him at the New York City demonstration, which will include a march to Trump Tower.

We say not one drop of working-class blood for the capitalist oligarchy!


Upcoming Events

BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action and other organizations will host a screening of the film, “Black Cop,” and lead a discussion afterward. RSVP for this April 23 Washington, D.C. event.

Did you know physicist Albert Einstein was tracked by the FBI because of his political views? If you’re in New York City, you can hear Ajamu speak about the foreward he wrote about McCarthyism—past and current—for the new book, “The Einstein File: The FBI’s Secret War Against the World’s Most Famous Scientist”. Get details and RSVP for the April 19 event.

LeftRoots Cadres & Compas will report back on a recent delegation that went to Vietnam. Register for this April 19 event that takes place online.

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 in Durham, North Carolina.

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.

Photo credit: AFP/STR

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!

MLK's Assassination and BAP's Anniversary

April 4 marks 50 years since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.

The Black Alliance for Peace also launched last year on the 50th anniversary of his 1967 Riverside Church speech. It was then that Dr. King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War, connecting it to the domestic war on Black and poor peoples.

He said in his opening, “I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.”

Similarly, we at BAP say we are doing this work because we have no other choice as we see our kinfolk murdered domestically and in Africa, while other oppressed peoples bear unimaginable burdens.

Our common enemy? Imperialism.


Spring Actions

In honor of Dr. King’s call to defend oppressed peoples, we invite you to join us in demonstrating against war and against the empire April 14-15. Spring Actions will be held nationwide. If you are part of a group, we invite you to endorse and organize events. If you’re in or near New York City, you’ll see BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka speaking at that demonstration, which includes a march to Trump Tower.
 

Upcoming Events

“The Black liberation movement is still fragmented in various alignments whose programs and demands have much in common,” according to the Labor Fightback Network Steering Committee. To build toward unity, the National Assembly for Black Liberation will be held May 18-20 at North Carolina Central University in Durham. There, participants will discuss the Draft Freedom Manifesto as a unity document, along with resolutions submitted by battlefront committees, so a program of action can be drafted. Register for the National Assembly for Black Liberation.

Ajamu will speak at the Black is Back Coalition Electoral School being held April 7-8, in St. Louis, Missouri. The theme is “Can Electoral Politics be a Path Towards Black Self-Determination?” Register today.


Afro-Colombians Need International Support

Consider signing on in your individual organizational capacities to a letter by Proceso de Comunidades Negras (a coalition of Black organizations in Colombia). The letter asks the Geneva-based NGO, UPR-INFO, to allow an Afro-Colombian representative to address a briefing to members of the United Nations Human Rights Council in advance of its UPR review of Colombia. Right now, UPR-INFO has slated someone who is not from the Afro-Colombian community to include talking points on Afro-Colombian issues in their speech.

As Black internationalists, we say Afro-Colombians must have the opportunity to speak for themselves about the lack of human rights in Colombia. To sign on, please send an email with your organization's complete name, city and country to advocacy@madre.org.

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.