Why ‘Anti-imperialist’ in the U.S. Still Means ‘Paid for by Russia’

Why ‘Anti-imperialist’ in the U.S. Still Means ‘Paid for by Russia’

We would think the U.S. state would be embarrassed.

All three of Venezuelan neo-fascist Juan Guaido’s coup attempts have failed. Donald Trump appears to be raising questions regarding the effectiveness of National Security Advisor John Bolton's pro-coup strategies in Venezuela.

Yet the assault on the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C., continues unabated.

The electricity and water were turned off this week in an attempt to smoke the Embassy Protection Collective out of the building in the upscale Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Georgetown.

The state still appears to be hot to blame Russia for its ills. Journalist Anya Parampil tweeted a Secret Service officer said anti-interventionists are “paid by Russia or whatever.”

This is a curious statement: “... paid by Russia or whatever.”

It not only shows the U.S. state is still scapegoating Russia after the Mueller report demonstrated Russia did not meddle in the 2016 U.S. election.

Embedded in that statement is the assumption that forms the foundation of U.S. mythology: That in order to be good, one must be aligned with the white supremacist imperialist project. Those who are not white and/or not in alignment with that project are otherized.

As African/Black internationalists, we reject that position and continue to stand with the colonized peoples of the world. (Check out BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman breaking down the connection between Pan-Africanism and liberation movements throughout the world in an interview with Eleanor Goldfield of Act Out.) That is why our folks have consistently shown up at the Venezuelan embassy. We understand what it’s like to be under siege by militarized forces, to be deprived of our basic needs, our human rights violated, and demonized by the First World imperialists right here in the belly of the beast. We released an official statement on the matter.

Below, you can see Garrett Harris and Toby Robert of Pan-African Community Action, a BAP member organization, alongside Maurice Carney of BAP member organization Friends of the Congo, and BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley—all willing to stand in the rain for hours yesterday, across the street from the embassy.

From left to right: Garrett Harris of BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA), Maurice Carney of BAP member organization Friends of the Congo, Toby Robert of PACA, BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley on May 11, 2…

From left to right: Garrett Harris of BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA), Maurice Carney of BAP member organization Friends of the Congo, Toby Robert of PACA, BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley on May 11, 2019 across the street from the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C.

The Real News Network interviewed Garrett on the scene last week, when neo-fascist forces first swarmed the scene with their violence.

Now we must ask you to take action to help restore water and electricity at the Venezuelan embassy, and end the neo-fascist siege on the building. Copy and paste the letter below and send it to the following email addresses for Washington, D.C., officials and agencies:

info@dcwater.com, eom@dc.gov, customeradvocate@pepco.com, jevans@dccouncil.us, pmendelson@dccouncil.us, kmcduffie@dccouncil.us, abonds@dccouncil.us, dgrosso@dccouncil.us, esilverman@dccouncil.us, rwhite@dccouncil.us, bnadeau@dccouncil.us, mcheh@dccouncil.us, btodd@dccouncil.us, callen@dccouncil.us, vgray@dccouncil.us, twhite@dccouncil.us, peter.newsham@dc.gov

Please restore water and electricity to 1099 30th Street NW, Washington, D.C., aka the Venezuelan embassy. It is a human rights violation to cut off water and electricity. Your top officials can be sued and hauled off to jail.

An embassy is considered a sovereign country inside the United States. You are obligated per Article 25 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to provide resources so that a diplomatic building can function. You are obligated per Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to protect the building from the neo-fascist siege currently underway.

The people inside the building are lawful tenants, having met the 14-day threshold of D.C. tenancy. They are also skilled attorneys. When you are sued, the people of D.C. will blame you for being complicit with U.S. gangsterism, the same gangsterism that the United States demonstrates around the world, cutting off access to resources, bombing people of color all over.

These neo-fascists are the same type of people who last year burned an Afro-Venezuelan man alive.

It is unprecedented for the U.S. government to cut off water and electricity to an embassy and allow neo-fascist thugs to damage the outside of an embassy. This siege will have a ripple effect on international relations. Even during wartime, embassies are hands-off zones. Now, how can other embassies expect their buildings to be protected and fully functioning in D.C.? Why wouldn't another country attack a U.S. embassy abroad after what you have allowed?

Secret Service and Metropolitan Police Department only stand by, watching the thuggery and arresting peaceful people who are being assaulted.

It is in the best interests of PEPCO, D.C. Water and the District of Columbia to stay out of the war the United States is waging on the majority Black and Brown country of Venezuela and its embassy. Immediately restore water and electricity to the lawful tenants of the Venezuelan embassy. Then end the neo-fascist siege on the embassy.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[City, state, country]


No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.

P.P.S. Watch Netfa discuss Pan-Africanism’s connection to global liberation movements.


Failed Coup in Venezuela Intensifies Battle at Embassy

Failed Coup in Venezuela Intensifies Battle at Embassy

Juan Guaido’s coup attempt failed.

The United States is re-tooling.

Yet a battle rages at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C., where activists living inside at the invitation of the Maduro government have been under siege. They have been assaulted by blaring bullhorns, sirens, strobe lights, and a violent opposition that has been drilling holes into the building and attempting to knock down the embassy door. The opposition also reared its racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQIA+ head, with its members spewing slurs at activists and journalists, and stalking a journalist.

All this while the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department have looked away and arrested more embassy activists than opposition members.

Opposition members who support Guaido first held a rally in front of the embassy on April 30, the day Guaido’s failed coup took place outside an air base in Venezuela. But Guaido’s fake ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, who claimed he was taking over the embassy that day, was driven away by activists who drowned out his words with their speaker system.

Since then, the opposition has dwindled, but remains combative.

Yesterday, Black Alliance for Peace member organizations such as Friends of the Congo and Pan-African Community Action stood in solidarity with the Embassy Protection Collective and against the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. As African/Black internationalists, we stand with the colonized peoples of the world. We also condemn the Trump administration’s attempt at a coup. Read our official statement.

Photo credit: Kevin Zeese, bottom right; Paul Pumphrey, top and bottom left

Photo credit: Kevin Zeese, bottom right; Paul Pumphrey, top and bottom left

As you see below, Paul Pumphrey, co-founder of Friends of the Congo, was assaulted with the blare of a megaphone. Fortunately, he was wearing earplugs.

Our folks have shown up regularly to support what has developed into another battlefield in the struggle against the U.S. attempt at a coup in Venezuela, and the larger struggle against U.S. imperialism. The opposition, dressed in polo shirts and dresses, looked like they were ready for Saturday brunch instead of a protest. The opposition appears to be well-funded, as a truck has been noticed dropping off a speaker system and other items. The opposition’s members don’t even seem interested in the opposition’s political position as they sway their hips to the revolutionary beats emanating from the embassy’s speakers. Activists inside the embassy say opposition numbers have dwindled, having dropped from a peak of 100 oppositionists on Tuesday to about 30 yesterday. A person on Twitter found out where some of these opposition members work and surprise: Current and former employers include the World Bank, Raytheon and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All are involved in the exploitation and destruction of the Global South.

In Colombia, our allies, Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN), had a close call yesterday. Armed men launched an attack on PCN’s leadership while they held a meeting. The perpetrators fired automatic weapons and a grenade was thrown. Goldman Environmental Prize-winning grassroots activist Francia Márquez's guard returned fire, driving the perpetrators off. The leadership was unharmed. Two of the guards sustained minor wounds. Colombia has taken a sharp turn to the right with the support of the United States. Last month, its president changed his mind and turned around when he was only 200 meters away from signing a peace agreement with the most marginalized people. Meanwhile, Indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians remain under siege in their territories. PCN represents the most sophisticated African/Black organization in South America. We must connect this attack to the struggle of Afro-Venezuelans, who are in the cross-hairs of repression at the hands of U.S. and European capital and their local class collaborators.

Back in the United States, BAP members have appeared in the press this week. Margaret Kimberley, a BAP Coordinating Committee member, told TeleSUR English the U.S.-backed fascist coup in Venezuela has long been supported by both Democrats and Republicans. Maurice Carney, executive director of Friends of the Congo, discussed U.S. priorities on the continent of our ancestors on RT after a new report uncovered 36 code-named U.S. military operations in Africa. Margaret also wrote a piece in Black Agenda Report about how the United States has crippled Venezuela.

BAP members Vanessa Beck, Erica Caines and Glen Ford, and Rebecca Bonhomme of Pan-African Community Action, will speak on panels Saturday at the Ujima People’s Progress Party’s 2019 statewide conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.

Banner photo credit: Kevin Zeese

Battle Continues at Venezuelan Embassy

Battle Continues at Venezuelan Embassy

Demonstrating solidarity with the embattled Bolivarian republic of Venezuela is today’s litmus test of anti-imperialism.

As African/Black internationalists, we stand in the tradition of our people’s historic anti-war and anti imperialist positions. We understand that when our folks are clear, they don’t accept the smoke-and-mirrors stunts that call themselves the “interim president” or the “most trusted name in news.”

Some of our folks based in the Washington, D.C., area have stepped up to support the Embassy Protection Collective over the past few days. Though the threat of arrest looms, the collective has been able to remain in the building. Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations stipulates the U.S. government is prohibited from entering, searching and seizing items from another country’s building. That, as well as protection provided by city tenancy laws, have been communicated to the U.S. Department of State.

BAP member Vanessa Beck held it down at a rally Thursday in front of the Venezuelan embassy, representing Black, working-class internationalists who oppose U.S. gangsterism abroad.

Photo credit: Faro Sau Paulo EU

Photo credit: Faro Sau Paulo EU

Yesterday, we showed up again—this time for a spontaneous rally. BAP member Jacqueline Luqman spoke about the solidarity our people have for an oppressed country struggling for self-determination. Watch her talk.

Jacqueline Luqman, Venezuelan Embassy D.C., April 27, 2019

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his imperial arrogance, gloated recently that while he was CIA Director, agency members lied, cheated and stole. If that wasn’t revealing enough, he added the CIA represented “the glory of the American experiment.” The Resistance and the Democratic Party have aligned themselves with the national security state, for they view it as opposition to Trump. But in this regard, they are just as dangerous. We’re not fooled. U.S. security agencies, just like the military, regularly subvert and overthrow Black and Brown countries targeted for regime change. “The Secretary of State’s candid remarks remind us that U.S. foreign policy is intended to punish those targeted as enemies, keep friends as vassal states, and disregard international law,” writes BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley in Black Agenda Report.

The U.S. military, in addition to killing innocent Black and Brown people, is the world's largest polluter, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined. The military is accelerating climate change and has left a toxic legacy across the world and on sovereign nations inside the United States. For a U.S. state committed to upholding white supremacy, Black and Brown lives are disposable, as is our very environment. This is why we say the war on African/Black people domestically is connected to the war on Black and Brown people abroad.

BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA) has been in Cuba over the past week with the 14th May Day International Brigade to commemorate International Workers’ Day alongside internationalist delegations from 32 countries.

BAP is proud to endorse the May Day on Wall Street rally and march happening in New York City.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.

Did the Mueller Report Distract You?

Did the Mueller Report Distract You?

The drama that has played out in the mainstream media over the release of the Mueller report had us at the Black Alliance for Peace asking the question we always come back to: What are the ruling-class minions in media and government not discussing?

We’ll tell you: Congress is about to hand the president a $750 billion budget increase for “national security.” Trump also vetoed the congressional bill that attempts to stop U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Folks, don’t let the Democrats play you.

These people—especially our mis-leaders in the Congressional Black Caucus—had the power to stop the war in Yemen when Obama was in office. (Indeed, this was Obama’s war, as was the attack on Libya and the destabilization that has destroyed parts of Syria.)

That’s why it is so important we as African/Black internationalists attempt to re-develop our people’s historic anti-war and anti-imperialist positions. Because when our folks are clear, we don’t stand for these media charades.

BAP members have been in the streets and in alternative media broadcasts doing propaganda work to bring the message to our people.

For example, watch BAP member Jacqueline Luqman interview BAP Coordinating Committee members Vanessa Beck and Netfa Freeman on the connection between the U.S. militarization of Africa and the militarized occupation of African/Black communities in the United States. Watch part 1 and part 2.

BAP member Bilal Mafundi Ali joined more than 300 activists on a bus to Sacramento to lobby the California state legislature to pass the California Act to Save Lives (AB 392). The bill proposes easing the process of filing criminal charges against police officers when they use force in cases where de-escalation techniques could have been used. The bill passed the state Assembly’s Committee on Public Safety and has moved to the Appropriations Committee. The Bay Area chapter of BAP spoke with activists about the connection BAP makes between U.S. wars abroad and the war on our people in the United States. People took to our message, as you can see from the collage below.

BAP in Sacramento, April 9, 2019

The U.S.-instigated crisis in Venezuela continues to morph. That is why BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka gave interviews to TeleSUR’s “From Washington” and “From Caracas”, as well as to Mayadeen Programs.

We're proud BAP member organization Pan-African Community Action participated last week in securing the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C. Brothers Netfa and Garrett and Sister Queshia gave a presentation on how the U.S. militarization of Africa is the flip side of the repression U.S. African/Black communities face.

Embassy Protection Collective

We ask those of you in Washington, D.C., and those who can travel to the city, to help occupy the Venezuelan embassy. The opposition has announced they plan to seize the embassy this week, as they have done with other Venezuelan buildings in the United States.

No compromise.

No retreat.

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

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.

Photo credit: Embassy Protection Collective in banner; collage photos by Bilal Mafundi Ali

Watch Our Second-Anniversary Videos!

Watch Our Second-Anniversary Videos!

Coming off our second-anniversary week, we wanted to alert you that you can watch each talk from our standing-room only April 4 event here. Featured speakers include activist Gina Best, poet Ife al-Din, Rev. Graylan Hagler, and Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) members Jacqueline Luqman, Jaribu Hill, Glen Ford, Netfa Freeman, Margaret Kimberley, Vanessa Beck, Rose Brewer and Ajamu Baraka. Watch them together or one at a time. Then do the oppressed peoples of the world a favor and share.

A few hours before the event, Netfa and Ajamu gave interviews to Sputnik’s “The Critical Hour” about our new campaign, our take on NATO, and how to appropriately honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work against materialism, militarism and racism. Check it out at minute 19:00.

Then after an anti-government force advanced westward toward Tripoli, Netfa went on RT’s “In Question” on Monday to discuss what’s next for the U.S. presence in Libya. We'd like to remind folks that what was once the most prosperous African country had been destroyed by the NATO (U.S.) war in 2011.

Netfa also spoke Thursday to “The Critical Hour” about “ghost skins”, covert white supremacists who the FBI has found lurk in all levels of U.S. law enforcement. As African/Black internationalists, we are not surprised.

On Tuesday in New York City, Ajamu reported on his experience with the U.S. Peace Council delegation to Venezuela at a National Writers Union event.

Finally, the agitation BAP engaged in during the first week of April, opposing NATO and lifting up MLK’s legacy, wasn’t free. Since we do not get corporate funding, we must come back to you. Please help us make up for these revolutionary expenses with a generous tax-deductible donation.

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. Consider giving today.

Celebrating Two Years Struggling Against Imperialism

Celebrating Two Years Struggling Against Imperialism

This week, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) rallied, marched and struggled, ending by celebrating our second anniversary in Washington, D.C.

At the march against NATO on March 30 in Washington, D.C., we made sure onlookers could not miss us because the wars abroad and in the United States disproportionately affect African/Black people.

BAP Coordinating Committee member Paul Pumphrey spoke about U.S./NATO domination in Africa, while BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka told the crowd Afro-Venezuelans want peace, but are prepared for war.


The march received coverage from The Real News, RT and TeleSUR.


On March 31, Ajamu spoke about the contradictions of the U.S./EU/NATO axis of domination at the World Peace Council's first U.S.-based conference.

Then on April 2, after six months of gathering signatures to demand the United States end militarism in Africa, BAP members went to Capitol Hill and delivered about 3,500 signatures to Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass and CBC member Ilhan Omar. A letter also was delivered to Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Pramila Jayapal. Read our statement for details.

On the morning of April 4, our people here, here and here marched from Albert Einstein Memorial to the State Department to oppose NATO’s 70th anniversary celebration, a desecration of the 51st anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Afterward, folks marched to the MLK Memorial for a program dedicated to King’s anti-racist and anti-imperialist legacy.

That evening, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in northeast Washington, D.C., was forced to open up the balcony as the hall overflowed for our second-anniversary event, “No Compromise, No Retreat in the Fight to End Militarism and War”. There, we announced we were rolling out our second campaign, No Compromise, No Retreat: Defeat the War Against African/Black People in the U.S. and Abroad.

Solidarity statements by scholars and activists Mireille Fanon-Mendès-France and Cornel West played at the start of the event.

Fanon-Mendès-France said, “On the eve of the second anniversary of Black Alliance for Peace, we must recognize the political and solidarity work done by BAP. This organization tirelessly denounces the hegemony of occidental countries and their supporters; BAP analyzes the situation of people of African descent in many countries and protests constructively against political decisions that do not allow them to obtain recognition and justice. BAP goes beyond the American continent and is mobilizing, through an active campaign, against the AFRICOM bases or against the NATO policy which, both of them, obstruct the possibility of development of many countries.”

West praised BAP: “The critique of capitalism, the critique of white supremacy… but most importantly, having integrity and telling the truth regardless of the consequences.”

Ajamu will do a reportback on his experience with the U.S. Peace Council delegation to Venezuela on April 9 in New York City.

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. Consider giving a birthday gift to support our work.


Banner photo credit: Netfa Freeman

Join the March Today for Venezuela and Against NATO

Join the March Today for Venezuela and Against NATO

We invite you to join us today in front of the White House to oppose the scheduled 70th anniversary NATO meeting.

BAP is also organizing an action at the NATO site on April 4 that will be joined by activists from across the country. For more information on the particulars, please monitor our website.

And don’t forget to come out to our second-anniversary event, “No Compromise, No Retreat in the Fight to End Militarism and War” at 7 p.m., April 4 in Washington, D.C.

No Compromise - BAP 2nd Anniversary Event

If you cannot make it to D.C., please sign our online petition to shut down AFRICOM as well as the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s petition demanding hands off Venezuela. Yesterday was the deadline for BAP to receive physical sheets that some of you used to collect signatures in your communities.

Please also check out an interview BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka gave this week to RT on the "normalized lawlessness" of the international order, read this BAP article published in Black Agenda Report, and hear BAP member Netfa Freeman discuss on Black Agenda Radio the moral imperative for coming out today.

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Now we must come to you—the people—because unlike the big nonprofits, we don’t get corporate funding or foundation money. In fact, the elites would do anything to stop our grassroots agitation. That’s why we ask you to consider supporting us with a generous donation. We need to raise $5,000 to cover travel, food and accommodations for our activists during this week.

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 BAP’s efforts to agitate around Venezuela and against NATO.

Why We Defend Afro-Venezuelans

Why We Defend Afro-Venezuelans

What we are witnessing in Venezuela is not a crisis of socialism, but of capitalism and empire. The people of Venezuela, Haiti and other places the United States intends to invade, suppress and exploit want peace—but we know there can be no peace without justice. As we at the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) say, you must be prepared to fight for justice.

The terms of struggle are quite clear when observing the spectacle at the White House this week, with two neo-fascists consolidating their murderous plans for the Latin American part of the Global South. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s visit to the White House and Trump’s proclamation that Brazil should be a main non-NATO member revealed in a few minutes what a dozen studies couldn't have demonstrated: NATO is a U.S./European instrument for the continued colonization of the world. We saw that in the 2011 NATO-led attack on Libya, the most prosperous African country—this war destabilized the continent of our ancestors. In fact, the eighth anniversary of this invasion passed on March 19, along with the 16th anniversary of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion on March 20. And again, this Sunday, we mourn the 20th anniversary of the NATO attack on Yugoslavia.

All of this is precisely why we are making the connection in the next few weeks between the economic, political and ideological war being waged against Venezuela and the war being waged against all Africans, including the African/Black working-class and poor in the United States. It is why Afro-Venezuelans say, “We want peace, but we are ready for war!”

We invite you to join us as we head to Washington, D.C., to oppose the scheduled 70th anniversary NATO meetings April 3-4 and our coalition partners’ events from March 30 onward. BAP is organizing an action at the NATO site that will be joined by activists from across the country. For more information on the particulars, please monitor our website for information.

If you cannot make it to D.C., please sign our petition to shut down AFRICOM as well as the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s petition demanding hands off Venezuela.

Last Saturday, BAP represented at the National March on Washington to oppose the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Below, you’ll see Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman speaking in front of the White House.

Netfa Freeman at National March on Washington, March 16, 2019

Because of the trouble traveling back to the United States, the U.S. delegation to Venezuela that BAP participated in has postponed two events:

  1. The group will report its initial findings at a press conference at 11 a.m., March 26, at the United Nations

  2. The U.S. Peace Council, which organized this delegation, will host a public conference call at 7 p.m., Eastern Time, on Tuesday, March 26

BAP invites all defenders of peace, social justice, international law and national sovereignty to join us on this conference call.

Please register for the March 26 public call.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please also check out an interview on RT that delegation co-leader Bahman Azad gave this week, read this article by delegation participant Popular Resistance, sign up for a March 28 public call on NATO and Latin America, and visit our Videos page to watch other delegation videos from Venezuela.

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It is because of all we are doing that we must now come to you. Consider supporting us with a generous donation. We need to raise $5,000 to cover travel, food and accommodations for our activists during this period of agitation. Unlike the big nonprofits, we don’t get corporate funding or foundation money. That is why we must go to the people for support.

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 BAP’s efforts to agitate around Venezuela.


Photo credit: Answer Coalition

What a U.S. Peace Delegation Learned in Venezuela

What a U.S. Peace Delegation Learned in Venezuela

We mentioned last week that to gather the full range of evidence on U.S. efforts to sabotage Venezuela, a delegation of 13 leaders from peace, civil rights and women’s organizations were heading to Venezuela for five days.

The trip flying in was difficult because many airlines have refused to fly to Venezuela over perceived “danger”. Now, the trip back has been made more difficult because American Airlines refuses to fly to Venezuela. Yet this delegation found the embattled country lively and safe. While delegation members were stuck on the ground until further notice, they livestreamed yesterday.

During their five days in Venezuela, delegation members met with movement leaders and government officials, including President Nicolás Maduro Moros, who recorded a solidarity message that is posted on Twitter and Facebook.

The delegation also visited a community garden in Caracas on the invitation of Minister of Agriculture and Lands Wilmar Castro Soteldo. Delegation members were asked to plant seeds. Check out delegation member Popular Resistance’s on-the-ground videos on its Twitter feed.

You can see below Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) National Organizer, U.S. Peace Council Executive Board member and delegation co-leader Ajamu Baraka speaking to the media. Also seen are International Action Center Co-director Sara Flounders and United National Antiwar Coalition Co-coordinator Joe Lombardo.

Delegation at Caracas community garden

Ajamu also did a lengthy interview with Telesur that will air next week.

Ajamu Baraka on Telesur

After the delegation returns to the United States, it will report its initial findings at a press conference at the United Nations that will be postponed from its original March 18 date to accommodate the delegation’s travel changes.

However, the U.S. Peace Council, which organized this delegation, still plans to hold a public conference call at 7 p.m., Eastern Time, on Monday.

BAP invites all defenders of peace, social justice, international law and national sovereignty to join us on this conference call.

Please register for the March 18 public call.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Back in the United States, a BAP representative will speak at noon today at the ANSWER Coalition’s demonstration in front of the White House, in opposition to the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Also join anti-NATO events from March 30 through April 4, which will include a BAP-organized street action and evening panel discussion on April 4.

Please consider supporting us with a generous donation. We need to raise $5,000 to cover travel, food and accommodations for our activists during this period of agitation.

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 BAP’s efforts to agitate around Venezuela.

Black Alliance for Peace Heads to Venezuela!

Black Alliance for Peace Heads to Venezuela!

If you’re reading this, you’re aware of some of the ways the U.S. empire has manipulated in its latest attempt at a coup in Venezuela. In an act of brazen illegality, the Trump administration has barred the Bolivarian republic from being able to access its own money in foreign banks and has transported “humanitarian aid” that was embedded with materials that could have been used by the largely white supremacist opposition to ferment violence against the Venezuelan government.

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has been at the forefront of efforts to uncover the truth and spread the word, whether marching in the streets; rallying a crowd as member Asantewaa Mawusi Nkrumah-Ture has done; transporting member Efia Nwangaza to serve as a 2018 election observer in Venezuela; or speaking to a crowd about the connection between Venezuela and the U.S. military occupation of Africa, as you see National Organizer Ajamu Baraka and member Maurice Carney doing March 1 at Yale University in the photo below.

We have also released statements on Venezuela that we encourage you to read and share:

  1. Why We Must Oppose U.S. Intervention in Venezuela

  2. Black Working Class Will Never Abandon Venezuela!

  3. Black Alliance for Peace Says Struggle in Haiti and Venezuela Connected (an in-depth version was published by Black Agenda Report)

To gather the full range of evidence on U.S. manipulations, interference and efforts to sabotage, a delegation of 13 leaders from peace, civil rights and women’s organizations are heading to Venezuela tomorrow for five days.

BAP will be represented on that delegation!

After the delegation returns to the United States, it will report its initial findings at a press conference held the morning of March 18 at the United Nations.

At 7 p.m. that day, the U.S. Peace Council will hold a public conference call, too.

BAP invites all defenders of peace, social justice, international law and national sovereignty to join us on this conference call.

Please register for the March 18 public call.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Finally, BAP is gearing up for actions on March 16 in opposition to the U.S. intervention in Venezuela and from March 30 through April 4 in opposition to NATO, which will include a BAP-organized street action on April 4. Please consider supporting us with a generous donation. We need to raise $5,000 to cover travel, food and accommodations for our activists during that period.

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 BAP’s efforts to agitate around Venezuela and NATO.

Photo credit: Reuters/Marco Bello

Uncovering U.S. Lies in Venezuela

Uncovering U.S. Lies in Venezuela

This week, representatives from peace organizations throughout the United States announced they had formed a delegation to visit Venezuela on March 10. On this four-day trip, the delegation intends to gather information from Venezuela’s elected leaders and civil society groups to demonstrate what is missing from the U.S. mainstream media narrative: Most Venezuelans oppose the U.S. intervention and CIA-trained puppet Juan Guaidó, who has announced himself Venezuela’s “interim president.” Watch the press conference and read the official statement.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced victory on February 23. That day, he spoke to tens of thousands of Venezuelans who had marched from several corners of Caracas to express their opposition to the attempted U.S. coup aiming to disrupt the Bolivarian process that began 20 years ago under former President Hugo Chavez. The opposition’s goal of taking over the country on February 23 fizzled at border entrances. Trucks supposedly carrying U.S. humanitarian aid turned out to be Trojan horses—according to Venezuelans, nails and wire were embedded in the supplies. These items are regularly used to create road traps. When the U.S. plan to send aid was announced, the International Red Cross and the United Nations denounced it as “politicized” and declined to participate. Watch Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone Project unpack the U.S. narrative of starving Venezuelans in his visit to a Caracas supermarket. RT correspondent Dan Cohen reported from the Colombian-Venezuelan border, where he spoke to a Colombian priest who said the goal is to force the internal situation in Venezuela to devolve via food and medicine shortages, which would ease the way for a coup. An Afro-Colombian activist spoke to “Redacted Tonight”’s Lee Camp about human-rights violations against Indigenous and African peoples in Colombia. The lack of U.S. intervention into the human-rights crisis in neighboring Colombia—a NATO ally no where near the northern Atlantic Ocean—highlights the hypocrisy of U.S. efforts to overthrow Venezuela’s leaders. Maduro also thanked activists who marched in New York City for demonstrating solidarity on the one-month anniversary.

We encourage you to read and re-post our statements on Venezuela:

  1. Why We Must Oppose U.S. Intervention in Venezuela

  2. Black Working Class Will Never Abandon Venezuela!

  3. Black Alliance for Peace Says Struggle in Haiti and Venezuela Connected

An in-depth version of the third statement can be found published by Black Agenda Report.

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: V. Arun Kumar / Peoples Dispatch

Rally for Venezuela Today!

Rally for Venezuela Today!

Today, we want you to get into the streets to oppose the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Solidarity events are taking place throughout the world today, which marks the one-month anniversary of the attempted coup. The opposition had announced it would provoke war today. That makes it all the more crucial we show solidarity with the majority of Venezuelan people who support the elected government and Afro-Venezuelans, who are particularly vulnerable to attack as the United States wages its racist, imperialist war.

You can find an event near you by heading to nowaronvenezuela.org.

For those of you who are members of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), please join the membership call at 11 a.m., Eastern Time. A portion of the discussion will be dedicated to Venezuela. Members will have received call-in info on the internal listserv.

If you are heading to Venezuela solidarity events today, we invite you to use language from our statements on Venezuela in your public comments:

  1. Why We Must Oppose U.S. Intervention in Venezuela

  2. Black Working Class Will Never Abandon Venezuela!

  3. Black Alliance for Peace Says Struggle in Haiti and Venezuela Connected

An in-depth version of the third statement can be found published by Black Agenda Report.

If you haven’t already seen it, check out the Facebook livestream, “Venezuela: Humanitarian Intervention or Imperialism?” It featured BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka and “The Empire Files” creator Abby Martin.

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: Eueslei Marcelino/Reuters/Scanpix

Venezuela: A Litmus Test for the Anti-War and Anti-Imperialist Movement

Venezuela: A Litmus Test for the Anti-War and Anti-Imperialist Movement

The global Pan-European Colonial/Capitalist White Supremacist patriarchy is conspiring against the Bolivarian revolutionary process in Venezuela—and some Black folks are going along with it. Why?

The Black misleadership class and the media also piled onto Virginia politicians for wearing Blackface, yet they aren’t opposing the white supremacy of U.S. interventions. Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) National Organizer Ajamu Baraka writes about this cognitive dissonance in the West.

We at BAP are attempting to re-connect the internationalist position of the Black radical tradition to the Black masses, who represent 90 percent of Black people in the United States. That is what prompted our February 6 statement: Black Working Class Will Never Abandon Venezuela!

BAP Outreach Coordinator YahNé Ndgo read out loud our initial January 26 statement that explains why we oppose U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Watch her here: Hands Off Venezuela!

We encourage BAP members and our allies in the struggle to organize local actions (particularly targeting the district offices of Congressional Black Caucus representatives) as part of the global mobilization in solidarity with the people of Venezuela on February 23.

Mark your calendars for the evening of February 21 to watch a live discussion on Venezuela featuring a special guest. It will air on BAP’s Facebook page. Like us if you haven’t already. We’ll release the exact time and other details on our Facebook page in the coming days.

The Cuban government released a statement February 14 on Venezuela we want to lift up because of its support for abiding international law as well as a regional pact: “What is being defined today is whether the legitimacy of a government emanates from the express and sovereign will of its people, or from the recognition of foreign powers.”

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BAP members: Please await information to register for the next BAP membership call being held February 23. Besides the usual BAP business, we will focus our discussion on Venezuela. Details to come on the member listserv.

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Despite intervention and election interference by the United States, the Haitian people are once again taking to the streets to defend their national sovereignty. We cannot ignore our African diasporic people in the world’s first Black republic of Haiti responding to racist exploitation.

We continue our work to shut down AFRICOM and request that you continue sharing our petition online and circulate the physical version (find it here) in places you organize: schools, workplaces, houses of worship and prisons. Check out BAP member and Black Agenda Report publisher Glen Ford’s public-service announcement on the U.S. Out of Africa! campaign. Feel free to use the PSA in your community-radio programs and podcasts—and tag us online when you do!

BAP also continues our effort to dismantle the global military arm of the Pan-European colonial-imperialist project: NATO. We support the national mobilizations to oppose NATO’s decision to celebrate its 70th anniversary in Washington, D.C., on April 4—the same day as the 51st anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We see this as a desecration of Dr. King and the Black population’s opposition to war and imperialism.

The national mobilizations include:

  1. The No to NATO, War and Racism March, starting at Lafayette Square in front of the White House at 1 p.m., March 30;

  2. A Concert for Peace and to End War, sponsors include the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Concert in Franklin Square in Washington, D.C., 1 p.m.-8 p.m., March 31;

  3. World Peace Council Anti-NATO Conference, St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C., 3 p.m.-7 p.m., March 31;

  4. No to NATO—Yes to Peace and Disarmament Counter Summit, location to be announced, all day April 2;

  5. No to NATO—Yes to Peace Festival, St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, 12 p.m.-10 p.m., April 3;

  6. Procession from MLK Memorial to rally at Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C., day time, April 4, details to come;

  7. BAP’s 2nd Anniversary Event: No Compromise, No Retreat in the Fight to End Militarism and War, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, Washington, D.C., 7 p.m.-9 p.m.

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: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Why We're Not Leaving Behind Venezuela

Why We're Not Leaving Behind Venezuela

This week, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) released another statement, delving into why we as internationalists of African descent will never give up on defending the sovereignty and self-determination of another oppressed nation—the Venezuelan people. “The war and militarism being waged against us by the domestic military we call ‘the police’—along with the mass incarceration complex—is part of the global Pan European Colonial/Capitalist White Supremacist patriarchy that is now conspiring against the Bolivarian revolutionary process in Venezuela.”

Considering how dangerous a successful U.S. coup would be for Afro-Venezuelans, folks from that community reached out to us, asking for additional support. That’s what prompted this latest statement: Black Working Class Will Never Abandon Venezuela!

In fact, the drive for imperialist war is not confined to Venezuela. The increasingly wild stories that feed Russiagate are being used as bait to lure the people of the United States into what could potentially be a nuclear war with Russia—that would be devastating for all peoples of the world. BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley writes in her latest Freedom Rider column, “McCarthyism is back and it is being led by liberals.”

We continue our work to shut down AFRICOM and request that you continue sharing our petition online and circulate the physical version (find it here) in your schools, houses of worship, prisons and anywhere else you organize. For inspiration, check out BAP member and Black Agenda Report publisher Glen Ford’s public service announcement on the U.S. Out of Africa! campaign. Feel free to use the PSA in your community-radio programs and podcasts—and tag us online when you do!

We encourage BAP members and our allies in the struggle to organize local actions as part of the global mobilization on February 23 in solidarity with the people of Venezuela.

We also must continue our efforts to dismantle oppressive structures, such as NATO. BAP supports the national mobilizations to oppose NATO’s decision to celebrate its 70th anniversary in Washington, D.C., on April 4—that’s the same day as the 51st anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We see this as a desecration of Dr. King and the Black population’s opposition to war and imperialism.

The national mobilizations include:

  1. The No to NATO, War and Racism March, starting at Lafayette Square in front of the White House, 1 p.m., March 30;

  2. A Concert for Peace and to End War, sponsored by organizations including the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, in Franklin Square in Washington, D.C., 1 p.m.-8 p.m., March 31;

  3. World Peace Council Anti-NATO Conference, St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C., 3 p.m.-7 p.m., March 31;

  4. No to NATO—Yes to Peace and Disarmament Counter Summit, location to be announced, all day April 2;

  5. No to NATO—Yes to Peace Festival, St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, 12 p.m.-10 p.m., April 3;

  6. Procession from MLK Memorial to rally at Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C., during the day, April 4, details to come;

  7. BAP’s 2nd Anniversary Event: No Compromise, No Retreat in the Fight to End Militarism and War, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, Washington, D.C., 7 p.m.-9 p.m., April 4

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: AP

On the White Supremacy of U.S. Interventions

On the White Supremacy of U.S. Interventions

As internationalists, we don’t shy away from defending a people’s right to determine their fate. That is why we have been so ardent in opposing the illegal U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Read and share our statement on Venezuela. (If you already have done so, please share it again!)

We are proud to say BAP members have been on the forefront of U.S.-based voices against U.S interventions. BAP member and Black Agenda Report publisher Glen Ford writes this week, “The same forces that resist Black community control of police and schools in the United States seek to overthrow any government in the formerly colonized world—that is, non-white nations—that claims the right of self-determination and national sovereignty.” BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley condemns warmongering Democrats in her latest piece, writing, “Venezuela is the proverbial line in the sand. One either supports the right of self-determination or not. The obvious fascists like Trump and Bolton and their smarter, smoother collaborators like Trudeau are cut from the same cloth. They must all be opposed.”

As you can see below, BAP member Asantewaa Mawusi Nkrumah-Ture spoke January 26 on behalf of BAP at a Philadelphia rally in opposition to the U.S. intervention in Venezuela.

Asantewaa Mawusi Nkrumah-Ture at Venezuela Rally, Philly, 1.26.2019

BAP member Margaret Kimberley also spoke about BAP’s position on Venezuela and the U.S. occupation of Africa on the Wider View Radio podcast and Sputnik Radio’s “Fault Lines with Nixon & Stranahan”. BAP Coordinating Committee member Netfa Freeman appeared on RT America’s “Watching the Hawks” to discuss the link between the United States interfering in Venezuela and in Africa.

In the coming weeks, we ask you to join anti-war groups that are organizing demonstrations to oppose NATO and the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Check out the United National Antiwar Coalition’s rally on March 30. Sign the Alliance for Global Justice’s petition to oppose the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Attend the “No to NATO, Yes to Peace Fest” on April 3.

Then join us April 4 for our event that celebrates both our second anniversary and condemns the 70th anniversary of NATO, which falls on the 51st anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. BAP member Glen Ford will keynote the event. He will be joined by organizers and activists including Jaribu Hill, Jacqueline Luqman, Netfa Freeman, Thenjiwe McHarris, Margaret Kimberley and Vanessa Beck. We'll provide more information on the event in the coming weeks.

Curiously, a story that should be big news is not getting the attention it deserves. The United States is involved in talks that could end the 18-year-old quagmire of Afghanistan. Soon, we will have more to say on this matter.

Another important item to follow is the Trump administration’s decision to suspend its participation in the 32-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which escalates the possibility for a global nuclear war. In response to this dangerous move, Russia suspended its participation as well.

PETITION ALERT: Did you know 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. 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. Learn more about U.S. Out of Africa!

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.

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.