White Liberal Guilt, Black Opportunism and the Green Party

Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Building a new kind of left party isn't easy, or it would have been done a long time ago. The Green party's annual meeting in Newark last week revealed some of the deep problems caused by liberals whose goal is "diversity."  Diversity creates token blacks, browns, women and queers and pretends they are leaders, instead of nurturing and developing leadership from below. Liberal diversity creates phantom and undemocratic bodies responsible to nobody which are easily manipulated by cynical opportunists.

Black Women in the Killing Fields

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

A white woman from Australia was gunned down by militarized police in Minneapolis – part of the collateral damage that flows from the U.S. mass Black incarceration regime. The intended targets are Black women like Charleena Lyles, killed by Seattle cops, last month. “Although Black women and girls make up only 13 percent of the U.S. female population, they account for 33 percent of all women killed by police.”

Freedom Rider: Kamala Harris and America’s Oligarchs

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

California’s new senator is actively being vetted as the “next Obama, “ or “Obama 2.0” -- a youngish, biracial corporate Democrat and a woman. Democratic honchos are betting that “white people will consider her exotic enough to be acceptable and black voters will rally around her.” The oligarchic George Soros likes Harris, who did him a favor by refusing to indict one of his banks. Most importantly, Harris is all about “form” -- not “reform.”

Jay-Z and the Rest of his Class Belong in the Dustbin of History

Submitted by Danny Haiphong on

by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong

Jay-Z’s album 4:44 confirms his deep loyalty to the capitalist system and profound disdain for the people that buy his records. He is a parasitic preacher of I-gotta-get-mine politics, like other celebrities whose existence does “nothing to alleviate the wealth disparity between White America and Black America.” His lyrical talent is superb, but his social analysis is worse than useless.

The Abandonment: Reflections on James Foreman’s "Locking Up Our Own"

Submitted by Paul Street on

by Paul Street

James Forman’s new book is indispensable “for those who want to get the whole story on the rise of the “the New Jim Crow.” The Black middle and upper classes, which have been largely exempt from the mass Black incarceration regime, “actively participated in the rise of the racist mass incarceration and felony-branding system.” Blacks demanded both crackdowns on crime and a Marshall Plan for Black America – but got only tough crime laws.

The Venezuelan Constituent Assembly: Pillars of a Communal Culture

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by The Philosophical Gathering of The Poor

The U.S.-backed opposition has played its cards, unleashing terror and economic sabotage against the Bolivarian revolution. Now it is the people’s turn, with the convening of a National Constituent Assembly with “the option of eliminating the old laws that bureaucratically block the processes of change.” The people have taken history in their hands, and will “sow the pillars of communal culture, where there will be neither owners nor slaves.”

Low Regard

Submitted by Raymond Nat Turner on

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Yesterday's news was that Donald Trump wishes he hadn't hired Jefferson Beauregard Sessions to be Attorney General. Sessions, who happens to be a lawyer actually read, or had somebody on his staff read the DOJ guidelnes which say the AG has to recuse himself from investigations into affairs in which he played a role. So now the president holds Beauregard in low regard as well. Comes around and goes around.

Organizing Pennsylvania’s 197: Cheri Honkala on Frontline Communities

Submitted by Ann Garrison on

by BAR contributor Ann Garrison

Cheri Honkala has always believed in taking direct action on behalf of the poor and dispossessed. A lifelong activist, currently with the Green Party, Honkala has tried to play by the duopoly’s rules. But the rule-makers are the biggest rule-breakers. “I learned about what it means to really run for office in a frontline community that’s run by the Democratic Party, also known as the local mob, and it has not a damn thing to do with Russia.”

Black Agenda Radio for week of July 17, 2017

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

Chicago to Host Black Is Back Coalition
The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations holds its national conference in Chicago, August 12 and 13, under the theme, “The Ballot and the Bullet: Elections, War and Peace in the Donald Trump Era.” Kamm Howard, of the Black Is Back steering committee, is active in NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. “One of the ways we’re pushing reparations is a Black Is Back-led push to have a reparations referendum put on the Chicago ballot in March of 2018,” said Howard.
Seeking Reparations by Dropping Slave Claims
In 2006, a federal court ruled that the descendants of Black slaves in the U.S. have no “standing” to sue for reparations. However, Dr. Jahi Issa and Reggie Mabry say they have devised a new legal strategy to overcome the courts’ objections. “Slavery in the United States was immoral, but it was legal,” said Mabry. What was not legal, however, was the importation of Africans as forced labor after the outlawing of the international slave trade in 1808. Issa and Mabry claim “the bulk” of U.S. Blacks are descended from these post-1808 victims of “human trafficking” -- as distinct from slavery -- and can make a successful case for redress in court.
Missouri Prisoners Push Suit for Hep C Treatment
Citing Mumia Abu Jamal’s successful legal battle against Pennsylvania prison officials, a court has granted Missouri prisoners the right to pursue a class action suit to force the state to treat them for Hepatitis C. In an essay for Prison Radio, Abu Jamal noted that Pennsylvania continues, in practice, to delay treatment for Hep C until prisoners “are at death’s door.” However, the legal precedents have been set, and “we are winning,” he said.
Precious Minerals + Rogue President = Mass Death in Congo
Two million people have been displaced from their homes by violence in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 80 mass graves have recently been discovered. Not coincidentally, huge deposits of coltan and other precious minerals have been found in the region, said Kambale Musavuli, of Friends of Congo. The killings are widely blamed on soldiers of President Joseph Kabila, who refuses to step down despite having used up his two terms in office. “This is the same area where King Leopold II of Belgium caused the death of millions of Congolese, a hundred years ago,” said Musavuli.
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

Precious Minerals + Rogue President = Mass Death in Congo

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

Two million people have been displaced from their homes by violence in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 80 mass graves have recently been discovered. Not coincidentally, huge deposits of coltan and other precious minerals have been found in the region, said Kambale Musavuli, of Friends of Congo. The killings are widely blamed on soldiers of President Joseph Kabila, who refuses to step down despite having used up his two terms in office. “This is the same area where King Leopold II of Belgium caused the death of millions of Congolese, a hundred years ago,” said Musavuli.

Missouri Prisoners Push Suit for Hep C Treatment

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

Citing Mumia Abu Jamal’s successful legal battle against Pennsylvania prison officials, a court has granted Missouri prisoners the right to pursue a class action suit to force the state to treat them for Hepatitis C. In an essay for Prison Radio, Abu Jamal noted that Pennsylvania continues, in practice, to delay treatment for Hep C until prisoners “are at death’s door.” However, the legal precedents have been set, and “we are winning,” he said.

Seeking Reparations by Dropping Slave Claims

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

In 2006, a federal court ruled that the descendants of Black slaves in the U.S. have no “standing” to sue for reparations. However, Dr. Jahi Issa and Reggie Mabry say they have devised a new legal strategy to overcome the courts’ objections. “Slavery in the United States was immoral, but it was legal,” said Mabry. What was not legal, however, was the importation of Africans as forced labor after the outlawing of the international slave trade in 1808. Issa and Mabry claim “the bulk” of U.S. Blacks are descended from these post-1808 victims of “human trafficking” -- as distinct from slavery -- and can make a successful case for redress in court.

Chicago to Host Black Is Back Coalition

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations holds its national conference in Chicago, August 12 and 13, under the theme, “The Ballot and the Bullet: Elections, War and Peace in the Donald Trump Era.” Kamm Howard, of the Black Is Back steering committee, is active in NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. “One of the ways we’re pushing reparations is a Black Is Back-led push to have a reparations referendum put on the Chicago ballot in March of 2018,” said Howard.

50 Years Later, Newark and Detroit Still Feel Tremors from 1967 Rebellions

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Todd Burroughs

The shock of the two largest Black rebellions of 1967 caused President Lyndon Johnson to assign the Kerner Commission to study race relations in the U.S. However, the commission’s report “was buried by Johnson because it was honest about the effects of white racism and poverty on oppressed Black people.” The rebellions are now sources of pride. “Newark and Detroit are still majority Black and brown cities, and therein lies the power.”

Resurrecting the Radical Pedagogy of the Black Panther Party

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Christopher F. Petrella

The Black Panther Party for Self Defense was deeply engaged in “education for liberation.” The party’s Intercommunal Youth Institute served children in East Oakland until 1982. Huey New and Bobby Seale “explicitly insisted upon ‘education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society [and] that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.’”

Mississippi Autoworkers Mobilize

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Michelle Chen

Union sentiment is rising at the Nissan auto plant in Canton, Mississippi, where the mostly Black workforce has experienced “increasingly unstable working conditions and general deterioration in benefits and safety protections.” Much of the work is temporary, and “Nissan promotes a ‘mutual cooperation’ approach“ for dealing with employees “without the interference and disruptions that often result from a union.”

South African Communist Party is “Pro-Capitalist and Anti-Socialist”

Submitted by Zwelinzima Vavi on

by Zwelinzima Vavi

The newly-formed South African Federation of Trade Unions rejected an invitation to attend a congress of the South African Communist Party (SACP), which is a stalwart ally of the ruling African National Congress and, until recently, President Jacob Zuma. Trade union leader Zwelinzima Vavi accused the SACP of being as guilty as Zuma of “implementing a neoliberal program that is anti-poor, anti-working class, pro-capitalist and anti-socialist.”

How Did Berniecrats Claim the Jackson Mississippi Movement? Do They Want To Be Claimed? Should They?

Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

When Jackson's mayor-elect Chokwe Antar Lumumba stepped to the podium at the cynically misnamed "Peoples Summit", the annual June pilgrimage of Berniecrats, he carried with him the credibility of a half century's organizing and struggle in Mississippi and around the country. He put this clout behind Our Revolution and the Berniecrats, who are fundamentally allergic to even the mention of global empire, Israeli apartheid, regime change, drone wars and the disastrous impact of the warfare state. Is that what the Jackson movement wanted?

Democrats Gone Mad: The Year of Living Stupidly

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Nobody voted for the War Party in November of 2016, but that’s who’s in power. Which is why both Democrats and Republicans talk of virtually nothing but Russians and war. Polls show most voters think there’s no evidence that Trump “colluded” with Russia, and they believe that much of what they see in the mainstream media is “fake news.” The Russian obsession is delegitimizing, not just Donald Trump, but the government and the media.

Freedom Rider: Leave North Korea Alone

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

U.S. presidents treat other nations like Dred Scott – as having no rights that the United States is bound to respect. North Korea is called “rogue” – the U.S. term for a country that “dares to exist on its own terms.” The dignity of peoples is foreign to Washington’s rulers, who cannot conceive that it is better to engage with an adversary “than to demonize it on a regular basis.”

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