Why Hands Off Venezuela?

Why Hands Off Venezuela?

We, at the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), have always been clear that all peoples and countries have a right to determine their fates, regardless of whether we agree with their internal politics.

As Black internationalists, we say an assault on oppressed peoples anywhere is equivalent to an assault on ourselves.

That is why we have issued this statement: Why We Must Oppose U.S. Intervention in Venezuela

Here’s a list of upcoming solidarity events you can attend:
 

ONLINE EVERYWHERE
Hands Off Venezuela Phone-Zap/E-blast

ATLANTA
Friday, 5 p.m.-6 p.m.
CNN headquarters
No event page is currently available

BALTIMORE
Today, 4 p.m.-5 p.m.
Corner of North Avenue and N. Charles Street
U.S. Hands Off Venezuela Baltimore Protest

CHICAGO
Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Federal Center and Plaza
Hands Off Venezuela! Emergency Demonstration

CLEVELAND
Tomorrow, 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Willard Park
Rally in Solidarity with Venezuela (#HandsOffVenezuela)

DURHAM, N.C.
Tomorrow, 1 p.m.- 3 p.m.
CCB Plaza
U.S. Hands Off Venezuela! Emergency Rally

LONDON, U.K.
Monday, 4: 30 p.m.-7 p.m.
Downing Street
Reject imperialist coup in Venezuela

NEW YORK CITY
Today, 12 p.m.
Cuban Mission
Defend Cuba and Venezuela Rally

NEW YORK CITY
Today, 2-4 p.m.
Union Square
Emergency Rally to Support Venezuela

MIAMI
Today, 1 p.m.
Doral, Florida
Trump: Hands-Off Venezuela!

PHILADELPHIA
Today, 12-2 p.m.
City Hall
U.S. Hands Off Venezuela! Defend the Bolivarian Revolution!

RALEIGH, N.C.
Today, 1-3 p.m.
Halifax Mall
No War on Venezuela!

SALT LAKE CITY
Today, 12 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Wallace Bennett Federal Building
Hands off Venezuela!

TALLAHASSEE
Today, 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
Florida State Capitol Building
Emergency Action: #HandsOffVenezuela

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Today, 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Vancouver Art Gallery
Rally - No Coup in Venezuela! U.S./Canada: Hands Off Venezuela!

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Today, 1 p.m.-2 p.m.
The White House
No Coup in Venezuela Protest!

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Today, 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
The White House
Rally to Support the Bolivarian Revolution and President Maduro

In response to the FBI’s strange and illegal detention of Black Muslim journalist Marzieh Hashemi, an internationally respected journalist who works for PressTV in Iran, BAP made it clear we were not going to be intimidated into silence. Read our statement on her release.

BAP members called for Hashemi’s release while she was illegally detained. BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley writes, “The demand for Marzieh Hashemi’s freedom is the new litmus test for anyone claiming to fight Trump, fascism, or racism. Those who fail to speak on her behalf are showing their true colors and are themselves unworthy of consideration. Their cowardice must never be forgotten.” Meanwhile, BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka says Hashemi’s detention shows the true nature of the bipartisan police state.

We are happy to see that while liberal totalitarianism rears its head, the people are fighting back. In Chicago, candidates for the upcoming election announced their support for a civilian-led police accountability council. BAP member organization Pan African Community Action, which organizes for community control of police in the Washington, D.C., area, is holding a popular-education event on the radical nature of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As announced last week, we’ve extended the deadline to April 4 for gathering petition signatures for the U.S. Out of Africa! campaign to shut down AFRICOM. We chose that date because it is the 51st anniversary of King’s assassination. (Don’t forget to join us in Washington, D.C., for our event that day, as well as other coalition actions organizing against the absurd celebration of NATO’s 70th anniversary. We agree with our friends at Popular Resistance that it is time to end NATO’s militarism!) You can download the U.S. Out of Africa! petition here. Print it out and circulate it in your communities, houses of worship, prisons, universities and in other places you organize. This campaign is BAP’s contribution to the Global Campaign to Close U.S./NATO Military Bases.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. We are completely dependent on the people. Contribute to our 2019 fund.

Photo credit: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

Would Dr. King Oppose NATO?

Would Dr. King Oppose NATO?

The United States attempted to co-opt the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by recognizing his birthday. The ruling elites tried to strip King of his militancy and suspend him above the mass movement that produced him. The state certainly had no intention to remain the focus of King’s opposition to the Vietnam War or even more threatening, his opposition to militarism in general and U.S. military imperialism in particular.

But we are actively liberating the meaning of Dr. King’s life and re-inserting it into the history of Black resistance. We argue with some confidence that Dr. King would be opposed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) because it is an instrument of U.S. and European militarism. He would not be confused—and neither are we—about why the liberal establishment, neocons, military-industrial complex, corporations and the corporate media are opposed to ending an anachronistic structure. NATO’s only reason for being today is to serve as the military wing of the dying U.S.-European colonial project.

BAP will use Dr. King’s birthday on January 15 and his assassination on April 4 as bookends during 2019 to intensify our efforts to engage the public in a conversation about the bipartisan commitment to war and violence. We will raise the visibility of our campaign to shut down AFRICOM as we prepare to launch a second campaign on April 4 that will focus on ending the state violence being waged against Black, Brown and poor people across the United States.

We remind our readers and supporters of a very important development, the creation of an international campaign to oppose NATO that BAP played a key role in helping organize in 2018. The saying goes, “Follow the money.” Here you can see why NATO and keeping the U.S. public on a war-footing is so incredibly profitable for the merchants of death. The U.S. dependency on force and militarism is also becoming a major threat.

BAP member Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D., an organizer and African-centered academic, presented a lecture at George Jackson University this past week. He begins speaking at 20 minutes into this recording.

We are alarmed at the FBI’s arrest and detention of U.S.-born African sister Marzieh Hashemi, who anchors Iran’s PressTV. Her hijab was forcibly removed and she has only been served pork in prison while she is being detained as a “material witness.” A campaign to #FreeMarziehHashemi has kicked off on Twitter.

The Network in Defense of Humanity published a statement calling for respect for the people of Venezuela as they struggle for self-determination through the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro. His administration has recently been under attack, with various U.S. politicians claiming the right-wing president of Venezuela’s National Assembly is the real leader of the country. All this while the United States mulls another round of sanctions and a military coup in the Bolivarian republic.

And finally, please help us get to 3,000 signatures on the petition to shut down AFRICOM that we will present to the Congressional Black Caucus. Please share the petition if you’ve already signed.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. We are completely dependent on the people. Contribute to our 2019 fund.

In 2019, Imperial Retreat or Deployment?

In 2019, Imperial Retreat or Deployment?

Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is under no illusions: The United States' announcement that it would withdraw from Syria and draw down military personnel from the 17-year quagmire in Afghanistan means nothing without concrete actions. So while we welcomed that announcement, we understood troops being pulled out of those countries doesn't stop the imperial imperative for military intervention and subversion. The backtracking on Syria and the subversion directed at Venezuela confirms for us that without sustained opposition, the imperial project will go on.

So we will continue to build our capacity to confront the bipartisan warmongers and the police state. We will continue because we have no other choice. Non-resistance is not an option for the oppressed.

We went to the public during the holiday season and the public responded to our independent, Black-led formation by donating $11,831. We did not quite reach our goal of $15,000, but we are thankful, nevertheless.

We also call on everyone to re-double their efforts during these final weeks of our AFRICOM petition drive, read the U.S. Peace Council’s statement on rejecting U.S. interference in Venezuela, and turn out for the United National Antiwar Coalition’s anti-NATO march on March 30 and BAP’s 2nd anniversary celebration on April 4.

BAP appeared in the media over the holidays, and as recently as yesterday:

  1. BAP member Margaret Kimberley spoke on New Year’s Day with Jamarl Thomas of The Progressive Soapbox about our U.S. Out of Africa! campaign

  2. Maurice Carney of BAP member organization Friends of the Congo explained yesterday on RT America's "In Question" why the United States is yet again interfering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s election

  3. BAP member Mark Fancher wrote in Black Agenda Report, asking if armed struggle is still the most effective tool in resisting imperialism.

  4. BAP member Netfa Freeman interviewed BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka on the racist announcement by U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton to further exploit Africa.

  5. Ajamu wrote in Black Agenda Report about Bolton’s speech and the Trump administration’s Africa policy being cruder reaffirmations of a political stance on Africa that has always put U.S. interests first

  6. Netfa analyzed the demonization of African infrastructure partner, China, in this Foreign Policy in Focus piece.

  7. Ajamu told BAP member Nellie Bailey on Black Agenda Radio that BAP welcomes a U.S. exit out of Syria.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. We are completely dependent on the people. Put BAP on the right track in 2019.

Why Decolonize Human Rights?

Why Decolonize Human Rights?

Monday marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first major instrument created by the United Nations.

We at the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) say this tool hasn't been effective because the post-war period has been an era of human depravity. Direct and indirect state and non-state violence have caused 30 million deaths, destroyed whole nations, normalized torture, used rape as a weapon of war, displaced millions of people, and have once again sparked the rise of neo-fascist movements across Europe and in the United States.

World War II only temporarily diverted the Pan-European, white supremacist, colonial/capitalist patriarchal project because the Germans brought the horrors of European colonial domination that had been unleashed on the “Americas” in 1492 onto Europe. But once Hitler was dispensed with, the systematic brutality that created “Europe” continued. You can learn more by reading this article by BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka.

This past weekend, we celebrated a truly liberatory human-rights framework—People(s) Centered Human Rights—with BAP member Jaribu Hill, organizer of the Southern Human Rights Organizers’ Conference (SHROC). You can watch the livestreams on SHROC’s Facebook page. We live-tweeted during the weekend, too.

Folks, we’re doing all of this without a penny of foundation funding. And yet, what we have been able to accomplish in 2018 on a shoestring budget would be unfathomable in the NGO world.

You can learn all about what we have done this year by tapping this link.

To do what we need to do in 2019, we must go to you, the people.

Only you can help us fund the movement to end war, repression and imperialism—here and around the world.

Please consider giving what you can today.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. We are completely dependent on the people. Contribute to our 2019 fund.

What Kind of Human Rights Do You Want?

What Kind of Human Rights Do You Want?

Without a penny of foundation funding, we have gotten more done for peoples’ struggles than many million-dollar operations.

Since we launched the U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM campaign on October 1, more than 1,700 people have signed our petition to shut down AFRICOM; our members have appeared in media interviews to discuss our grassroots effort to end the U.S. militarization of the continent of our ancestors that is connected to the state repression U.S. Black communities face; we co-organized successful panel discussions in Atlanta and New York City; and Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) members organized and participated in the Women’s March on the Pentagon, the only women’s march calling for an end to war, militarism and imperialism.

We continued sharing our message during #AntiwarAutumn by attending the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations’ annual March on the White House and their conference, participating in the Peace Congress, Veterans Occupy Washington and Catharsis on the Mall, and organizing a well-received AFRICOM plenary in Dublin, Ireland, at the First International Conference Against U.S./NATO Bases.

Earlier in the year, we attended the National Assembly for Black Liberation, re-structured our Coordinating Committee, organized a standing-room only Baltimore program, and attended the inaugural Conference on U.S Foreign Military Bases.

These activities have been key to building up our members and organizing with other anti-imperialist forces. We do all of this because a People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework informs our work. We don’t do liberal, individualistic human rights, which centers white power and finance capital, using “Responsibility to Protect” as a cover for maintaining Full-Spectrum Dominance.

It was, in fact, National Organizer Ajamu Baraka who had developed this groundbreaking concept, which opposes the legalistic, mechanistic, state-centered liberal framework the United Nations was founded on. Orient yourself with his work.

We plow forward without asking for foundation money because we know how difficult it would otherwise be to continue to be unabashed proponents of People(s)-Centered Human Rights, to continue stating our foundational understanding that the militarization of the African continent is connected to the repression of our people on this stolen land called the United States.

To do all of the things we need to do in 2019, we must go to the people. The foundations will not support us. The mainstream media won’t cover us. Only you can help us.

We rely on the people to fund the movement to end war, repression and imperialism—here and around the world.

Please consider giving what you can today.

You are all we’ve got.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. We are completely dependent on the people. Contribute to our 2019 fund.

What Are People(s)-Centered Human Rights?

What Are People(s)-Centered Human Rights?

Have you wondered about our tagline, “a people(s)-centered human rights project against war, repression and imperialism”?

Are People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHRs) different from human rights as we understand them?

And why the (s) in people(s)?

Over the next few weeks, as the world commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), we will take this opportunity to define People(s)-Centered Human Rights, and explain why BAP’s mission depends on PCHRs.

You also may not know that before BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka ran on the 2016 Green Party ticket, he was best known for developing the concept of People(s)-Centered Human Rights and putting it into practice at the U.S. Human Rights Network. Ajamu provides an introduction to the concept and its relationship to the radical Black human-rights tradition in this article.

Folks, we’ve surpassed 1,500 signatures on our petition to shut down U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), thanks to you! Please sign our petition—if you haven’t already—and share it online. If you want to be able to print out and circulate the petition in your communities, universities and elsewhere, click here. And if you would like to learn more about the connection we make between the militarization of the African continent and the domestic repression of Black folks on the stolen land called the United States, download and print out the AFRICOM factsheet you will find on our campaign page.

We’d also like to thank those of you who had contributed to us on #GivingTuesday. Because of you, we were able to raise $675. That means we now need to raise an additional $14,325 to meet our year-end goal to build our capacity for 2019. As you have seen from the coalitions we have helped developed, the high-quality information we have shared via our media interviews, and our groundbreaking U.S. Out of Africa! campaign, 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. We do not accept foundation money. Only you can help us raise the $15,000 we need for our 2019 work. Please give what you can because we depend on you.

Attend these events:

  1. BAP member organization Friends of the Congo is co-hosting a screening and discussion of documentary film “Kinshasa Makambo” until December 13 at Cinema Village in New York City.

  2. 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.

  3. Friends of the Congo is co-hosting a screening and discussion of “A Brilliant Genocide” December 13 at The People’s Forum in New York City.

  4. 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 build our 2019 capacity to go up against the U.S. empire.

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

We're Talking War and Peace in Dublin

We're Talking War and Peace in Dublin

As you read this, two of our members are on a flight to Ireland. There, BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka and BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley will meet with activists from 36 countries at the First International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases. Ajamu and Margaret serve on the Executive Committee of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, the organizer of this historic gathering. The coalition is comprised of activists from across the U.S. political spectrum, but we are unified by the hope that this weekend will further internationalize the U.S.-based anti-war movement.

Watch the conference livestream at noforeignbases.org. If you don’t want to miss a thing, remember Dublin is 5 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast, Canada’s Quebec province, the Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The conference starts at 2 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. On Saturday and Sunday, the conference begins at 4 a.m., EST.

Our petition to shut down AFRICOM is now in six languages! You can read it in Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish and Vietnamese. Please sign and share it online. If you want to be able to print out and circulate the petition in your communities, universities and elsewhere, click here.

Election Day in the United States passed with no substantive discussion of war and U.S. militarism, the issue that occupies the attention of peoples around the world who face U.S. military aggression. This year, we’ve raised less than $20,000 by appealing to ordinary people like you who seek peace and justice. We have 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. By November 20, we need to 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.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) asks friends of Palestine, movements for justice and liberation, and Palestinian and Arab communities everywhere in the world to demonstrate solidarity with Gaza while it is under attack.

Please also 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 send five Black radicals to the Southern Human Rights Organizers' Conference by contributing today.

Photo credit: Mohammed Saber / EPA

Black Is Back!

Black Is Back!

Black is Black Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations (BIB) held its annual march on the White House and its national conference last weekend. Watch livestreams of the conference, where many activists including BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka, BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley, and BAP members Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford spoke. Watch the videos of Ajamu and Nellie, and this livestream of Margaret and Glen.

We are happy Palestinian activist and author Susan Abulhawa has been released after being detained and deported by the settler-colonial state of Israel after trying to enter Palestine, her homeland, for a literature festival. Abulhawa had served alongside Ajamu and BAP Coordinating Committee member Jaribu Hill as a juror at the International Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crime in Puerto Rico. The petition we asked you to sign demanding her entrance to Palestine garnered more than 2,500 signatures in just a few hours.

We have reached close to 1,300 signatures on our petition to shut down AFRICOM! Help us get to 1,500 signatures by Sunday by sharing this link. Want to be able to print out and circulate the petition? Click here. While you’re at our campaign page, check out the latest media interviews, including BAP member Netfa Freeman’s chat with The Peace Report.

Please also attend these events:

  1. 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 at this event.

  2. 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.

  3. 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. Book a hotel room by November 13 for the group rate.

  4. 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: Black is Back Coalition

Building a Strong Left to Combat Fascism

Building a Strong Left to Combat Fascism

Wednesday night’s #AntiwarAutumn panel discussion was a success!

Speakers from BAYAN, the Black Alliance for Peace, the Black is Back Coalition, Friends of the Congo, People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) came together for one night at the Solidarity Center NYC to discuss ways to raise the consciousness of the U.S. population regarding the U.S. wars and U.S.-funded proxy wars raging around the world. Participants agreed a strong left must be built to combat the rise of fascism, which is a reaction to imperialism’s existential crisis. Attendees signed our petition to shut down AFRICOM and took home copies of our 4-page AFRICOM booklet. Find more photos here of our standing-room only event. Check out our live tweets from last night. Watch the livestream, too.

Last Saturday, BAP Coordinating Committee member Jaribu Hill and BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka participated as jurors at the International Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crimes in Puerto Rico. Many people traveled from around the country and from Puerto Rico to attend this historic event in New York City’s Holyrood Church, which has hosted revolutionary events in the past. Watch the final verdict!

Palestinian activist and author Susan Abulhawa has been detained by the settler-colonial state of Israel after trying to enter Palestine, her homeland, for a literature festival. Demonstrate solidarity with our Palestinian sister by signing this petition demanding her release! Below, you see her posing with Ajamu Baraka at the tribunal where they both served as jurors on Saturday.

Ajamu Baraka appeared on RT’s “In Question” to discuss our U.S. Out of Africa! campaign, as well as the rationale behind the tribunal. BAP member Netfa Freeman appeared in a Facebook livestream that you can also find on YouTube.

The Black is Black Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations (BIB) Chairman Omali Yeshitela also spoke to Black Agenda Report Radio about the devastating impact of the U.S. military occupation of Africa through AFRICOM, which denies self-determination to the entire continent. “Self-determination is the highest expression of democracy,” he said. Self-determination “is what we are fighting for, and that’s what people throughout the Americas and the world are fighting for.”

Last week, several BAP members participated in the Women’s March on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., including YahNé Ndgo and Charo Mina-Rojas, who spoke to the crowd of 1,500 people marching for an end to all wars. Both women provided valuable perspectives as African diasporic women from the United States and Colombia, both settler-colonial states. Watch their talks, which were captured by Consortium News.

On Sunday, we hit 1,000 signatures on our petition to shut down AFRICOM! Help us get to 1,500 signatures by next week by sharing this link.

Please also attend these events:

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

  2. 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 at this event.

  3. 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.

  4. 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. Book a hotel room by November 13 for the group rate.

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.



Tribunal photo credit: Ted Kelly

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.

Make It an Anti-war Autumn

Make It an Anti-war Autumn

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has helped kick off a new effort demanding candidates for office provide their position on war and militarization. It’s called Anti-war Autumn and it’s designed to demonstrate public opposition to the permanent war agenda of the duopoly. Use the hashtag, #AntiwarAutumn, on social media to help this campaign gain traction.

A series of actions and events have been planned during this Anti-war Autumn, including BAP launching the U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM campaign to draw attention to the increased normalization of war and militarism on the African continent. Please sign our petition to the Congressional Black Caucus and U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Can you help us get to 1,000 signatures this week by sharing the link with your friends?

This campaign has already generated diverse media coverage, with a number of members of BAP’s Research and Africa teams giving interviews and/or publishing pieces in Black Agenda Report, the iMixWhatiLike! online show, Resumen, Sputnik International, Sputnik Radio's ”By Any Means Necessary”, WPFW’s "Voices with Vision" radio program, Sputnik Radio's ”The Critical Hour”, the "Amandla" Canadian community radio program, WPFW’s “AfricaNow!” radio program, The Washington Informer, and others.

BAP also continued our effort at building solidarity with peoples and nations in the crosshairs of U.S. imperialism on October 7. That day marked the 17th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in the U.S. empire’s so-called “War on Terror”. BAP member Jose Monzon delivered a statement at an anti-war rally in New York City called by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC, International Action Center, International League of Peoples’ Struggles, and People’s Power Assemblies NYC.

BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka recently told Black Agenda Report Radio it is vitally important to give voice to Black folks’ long-held opposition to U.S. militarism abroad. A Black peace movement is necessary, “so we can determine our friends from our enemies, so we don’t allow our young people to be marched off to fight for the interests of the 1 percent against other poor and oppressed people around the world."

Please also attend these events:

  1. Join supporters from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on October 20 at a candlelight vigil and rally for Yemen at the Saudi Embassy, 866 Second Ave., between 46th and 47th streets, in New York City.

  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. 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. 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.

  6. 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 hotel with the group 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.

Photo credit: Joe Lombardo, UNAC

Shut Down AFRICOM!

Shut Down AFRICOM!

The war on Black folks is accelerating across the United States—and around the world.

In 2018, the United States spent $267 million on military operations in Africa through its U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) program. The United States says AFRICOM is “fighting terrorism” on the continent. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has evidence to prove otherwise.

Monday marked AFRICOM’s 10th anniversary, the same day BAP launched our campaign to demand the U.S. government shut down this imperialist instrument. Coming on the heels of our first membership meeting, U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM is BAP’s first targeted campaign and represents a significant development in BAP’s ability to engage the warmongers, educate the public and expand our ranks. The campaign will roll out over the next few months.

Already, we’ve made an impact with interviews on Sputnik Radio’s “By Any Means Necessary” and “The Critical Hour”, Atlanta radio station WRFG’s “Revolutionary African Perspectives” program, scholar and BAP member Jared Ball’s “iMixWhatiLike”, BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman's “Voices with Vision” program on Washington, D.C-based Pacifica radio station WPFW, Canadian radio program on African issues “Amandla”, as well as articles in Resumen and Sputnik International.

With the help of supporters abroad, we’ve obtained translations of the petition in French, German and Spanish, with more trslations forthcoming!

We hope everyone will sign the petition, reproduce the materials, organize teach-ins, write op-eds, and help us demonstrate we will not accept the normalization of state violence and U.S. global military dominance in the United States and abroad.  

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 BAP National Organizer 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.

  6. 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 a hotel room with the group 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.

Photo credit: AP/Ben Curtis

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.

Yemeni Children Die. The Media Doesn't Cry.

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