The Final Deathblow to Imperialism Will Only Come Under The Leadership of  The Organized Colonized Masses

Efforts to marginalize, disregard, and erase the presence of radical Black-, Brown-, and Indigenous-led anti-imperialist organizations, as well as our political positions, is proving to be endemic to the politics of too many who consider themselves radical anti-imperialist and anti-war activists. For this reason, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) reiterates that the peoples who bear the brunt of the brutal and lethal practices of U.S. imperialism are at the forefront of the struggle to dismantle the global system of white supremacist, patriarchal capitalism.

The colonized within the U.S. settler state see more clearly than the privileged the holistic nature of the system as well as the interdependencies between our domestic repression and U.S. wars abroad. Some forces that claim to be anti-war have an unsophisticated understanding of peace.

We understand that peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement, by popular struggle and self-defense, of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament, and unjust war. A condition for real peace is the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy and white supremacy. Anyone with genuine concern for the well-being of humanity and the planet should be deeply concerned that some supposed “leftist” forces consider it easier to find common cause with right wing libertarian forces than with the Black radical movement, as BAP Coordinating Committee member Jacqueline Luqman writes in this Black Agenda Report piece.

And as Chair of the BAP Coordinating Committee, Ajamu Baraka points out: 

“The white left in the U.S. is deeply delusional. Elements of the left actually believe a radical movement leading to revolutionary change will be led by white activists with Black & colonized people as backdrops. #AntiWarSoWhite”

We cannot afford any confusion, complicity, silence, or outright collaboration with some “liberal/left” forces on armed intervention into Haiti, the reactionary role of NATO, the intensification of state repression in the United States, the plight of the working class being subjected to an induced recession, and austerity. For BAP, all of these contradictions reaffirm why it is absolutely necessary for colonized people to be organized or face an inescapable subjugation and eventual annihilation. The comfortable will dismiss this as hyperbole.

We—the colonized, the exploited, the oppressed—are in the midst of a war. It is clear that the colonial-capitalist rulers will continue to deceive, mislead and co-opt to maintain their dominance. Our responsibility in opposition is to keep the focus on the imperialists and not be confused by the machinations of their supporters. That task and responsibility will continue to inform our work in 2023.

December 10 is Human Rights Day. On this day, U.S.-led Western states that are responsible for a majority of the most horrific crimes against humanity will cynically exploit the human rights idea, partially to deflect from their sordid records, but also to enlist the liberal human-rights framework into their arsenal of ideological weapons.

This Human Rights Day must be different. As tens of thousands of people are dying in Ukraine during an avoidable war to the ongoing wars in Yemen and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the slaughter of Palestinians in occupied Palestine, and the hundreds of thousands who died unnecessarily from COVID-19 in the United States, it must be stated—without any equivocations—that if human rights are to have any value, they must be liberated and reconstructed to serve the oppressed.

That has been the work of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) since its inception in 2017. Embracing the Black radical human-rights and peace traditions, the tagline of this formation has been: “A People(s)-Centered Human Rights Project Opposing War, Repression and Imperialism.”

We love peace!

It is only within the context of social peace that the possibility of human freedom, as well as individual and collective development and progress, can take place. But powerful forces correctly understand peace is a threat. It is a threat because those whose existence depends on the use of extreme forms of state and institutional violence understand the inexplicable link between peace and social justice.

But without justice, there can be no peace!

That is why the Black Alliance for Peace correctly stated, “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement by popular struggle and self-defense of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament and proliferation, unjust war, and subversion through the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.”

There can be no ambiguity here. We do not fight for the ideas in people’s heads—we fight the structures of oppression.

And human rights?

BAP operates within the framework of the Black radical human-rights tradition that is being popularized as the People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework (PCHRs). What constitutes that framework?

PCHRs are “those non-oppressive rights that reflect the highest commitment to universal human dignity and social justice that individuals and collectives define and secure for themselves through social struggle,” according to BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka.

This people(s)-centered framework proceeds from the assumption that the genesis of the assaults on human dignity at the core of human-rights violations is located in the ongoing structural relationships of colonial-capitalist oppression. Therefore, the PCHRs framework does not pretend to be non-political. It is a political project in the service of Africans, as well as the colonized working classes, peasants, and socially oppressed. It names the enemies of freedom: The Western white-supremacist, colonial-capitalist patriarchy.

Below, you will see examples of the ongoing work BAP member organizations, regional formations, local chapters and individual members are engaged in to build popular, independently organized power. Help us to sustain this work by donating today. But, even more importantly, become a monthly sustainer. No amount is too small.

We are recommitting to the victory the people must achieve and we hope you join us.

The Biden administration released its long-awaited National Security Strategy document on October 12. As expected, the document reflected a reaffirmation of themes that have informed U.S. foreign policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the aftermath, the United States became the preeminent global power. 

The commitment to the doctrine of “full spectrum dominance,” the foundation of U.S. foreign policy since the 1990s, is still in place. The strategic focus on U.S. competition with the major powers of Russia and China that characterized the strategic shift under Obama and even more explicitly under Trump was restated. And the continued marginalization of international law in favor of something called the “rules-based international order,” in which the United States establishes the rules and enforces the order, was also reaffirmed.

As leader of the “collective West”—those Western-oriented and Western colonial-capitalist nations that hold hegemonic global power—the Biden administration reaffirmed that U.S. and Western European states (representing 10 percent of the global population) would continue to wage hegemonic war against the rest of collective humanity.

But BAP is part of the resistance.   

The Biden administration’s plan to once again use the United Nations as cover to invade Haiti to smash the Haitian people’s movement for authentic democracy and national self-determination against a U.S. and European-imposed puppet government, represents another imperialist assault and front for struggle that BAP has been forced to take up.

BAP forcefully called on Russia and/or China to veto the Biden administration’s United Nations Security Council resolution to authorize a military intervention in Haiti. BAP considers that resolution an authorization for invasion that will result in the deaths of scores of Haitians. We will consider this action, no matter its phony legitimacy, as a crime against humanity and a war crime.

The U.S. plan to draw Russia into a proxy war in the Ukraine has turned out to be a monumental debacle, exposing the United States’ cynical plans as well as the limits of U.S. imperial power.

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has consistently analyzed the conflict as manufactured, one that could have been avoided with a real commitment to peace in that part of the world.

But the Biden administration decided war was the method. It needed to suppress Germany and disconnect the Russian economy from the Western European economy.

In May, we called for states to boycott the Summit of the Americas, an event through which the United States has attempted to maintain hegemony through manipulation. The people of our region declared opposition to it, saying one cannot be a partner and a hegemon at the same time. As long as the United States sees our region as its backyard—or its front yard—we will struggle against it.

All of these are indications we are witnessing the development of a new world, in which the possibility of equality, peace, development and stability can be achieved. But it’s quite clear it can only be achieved with collective humanity putting a break on the U.S./EU/NATO axis of domination. 

We are proud that BAP has become an integral force in dismantling the U.S. empire. In this issue of our newsletter, you will see some of the political work BAP has been involved in, both in the media and on the ground.

We hope to continue with your support to bring about peace and justice in this world.

RECENT WORK

BAP issued a statement on African Liberation Day. We pulled off a webinar in May to introduce our SOUTHCOM campaign. Then we did another webinar in June about the connection between health and People(s)-Centered Human Rights. Meanwhile, the Ukraine resources page has been updated. Check out the latest AFRICOM Watch Bulletin, featuring an interview with BAP member organization All-African People’s Revolutionary Party member Ahjamu Umi. Plus, keep up with what’s happening in Afghanistan with the Afghanistan News Update. 

BAP at 5 Years: Advancing the Struggle for Self-Determination and People(s)-Centered Human Rights

“We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together. And you can’t get rid of one without getting rid of the other.” (Martin Luther King —Chaos or Community [1967])

“The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) seeks to recapture and redevelop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical Black movement.” (BAP mission statement)

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement—by popular struggle and self-defense—of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament and proliferation, unjust war, and subversion through the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.” (Black Radical Peace Tradition, a BAP Principle of Unity)

“People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHR) are those non-oppressive rights that reflect the highest commitment to universal human dignity and social justice that individuals and collectives define and secure for themselves through social struggle.” (BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka)

Continue Reading…

Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford was buried August 7 in Lumpkin, Georgia. That land in the Southern Black Belt, located within the settler-colonial space known as the United States of America, produced for him—like so many before him—a clear sense of the intersection of class, white supremacy and the National Question.

In the African tradition, our ancestors may leave the physical world, but they never leave us. That is why we evoke them. When we do so and allow their presence to infuse our consciousness and vision, they become a material force through us.

We dedicate this newsletter to our dear brother and Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) member, Abdusshahid "Baba" Luqman (pictured below), who suddenly passed away on June 15. He and his partner, Jacqueline, hosted independent talk show "Luqman Nation" on Blog Talk Radio starting in 2014, and later on Facebook, YouTube and on Black Power Media. Baba's devotion to his people inspires us to keep going. Rise in power, brother.

Fear of a rising China has gripped the supposedly “global elites” of the world. G7 member states agreed on Saturday that all wifi connections be dismantled around the room they convened in because they worried China would eavesdrop, part of a years-long narrative that China’s private tech companies are conducting surveillance on its behalf.

At the meeting, U.S. President Joe Biden pitched to G7 member states an alternative project to contend with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an 8-year-old program involving the construction of railways, ports and roads, along with cultural exchange. Already, dozens of countries have signed onto it.

But G7 leaders didn’t seem enthused as talks ended Saturday. Countries like Germany and Italy are heavily invested in the Chinese supply chain. In fact, Volkswagen and BMW cars are top sellers in China. Even though Italy pulled out of the BRI, its officials remember China's generosity when it provided personal protective equipment and medical professionals during the height of Italy's COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. The rift within the Pan-European colonial-capitalist project is obvious.

U.S. President Joe Biden and the Democrats pretended to support an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour and a stimulus payment of $2,000 per person. They also claimed to be outraged by former President Donald Trump's moves to dismiss the result of the 2020 election and remain in office no matter what. Then last week, with full support from the corporate media, Biden released “The American Jobs Plan" and "The American Families Plan,” both meant to revive the so-called “American dream” by bringing Keynesianism back from the dead, along with FDR!

Once in office, though, Biden, who was put in place by neoliberal finance and corporate transnational capital, dutifully began the process of scaling back on his “progressive” stances. The $15/hour minimum wage proposal was scrapped using a shady parliamentary device that gave cover to Democratic Party backtracking. Then the $2,000 check became $1,400. Plus, although Democrats loudly condemned Trump's anti-democratic moves, the Biden-Harris administration gave the green light to its puppet in Haiti to ignore the requirement to leave office February 7. This came despite thousands of Haitians marching in the streets in opposition.

The ruling class has long deployed propaganda meant to obscure the rule of capital and normalize capitalist interests as the general interest of society. But lately, the liberal Western intelligentsia has elevated that deployment to a science.

The concept of humanitarian intervention and its logical derivative, the Responsibility to Protect, have proven to be one of the most innovative ideological weapons ever produced. By combining normalized assumptions of white Western civilizational superiority and the liberal anti-authoritarianism encoded in the DNA of the liberal project, imperialism has been able to win broad support for everything from direct military interventions and drone warfare to punitive sanctions against whole societies. These actions are framed as defending human rights, and even as “democracy.”

The reactionary character of U.S. politics is on full display as the corporate media—in alignment with the military-industrial complex—the lunatic elements of the foreign policy community and right-wing neoliberal Democrats seem committed to conditioning the public to accept yet another insane military confrontation. This time, with a real opponent—China!

What makes this situation even more absurd is the public voted for Biden and the Democrats because they were led to believe the United States and the world would be a safer place with them in charge. This comes even though the historical evidence has always demonstrated the opposite. Outside the disastrous decision by the Bush administration to attempt to wage imperialist war in two theaters, almost every other major and minor conflict that the United States engaged in since the end of the Second World War took place during a Democrat Party administration.